Slang and colloquial speech resist official one-dimensional discourse.

Evidence

These identifications, which appeared as a feature of operationalism, reappear as features of discourse in social behavior. Here functionalization of language helps to repel non-conformist elements from the structure and movement of speech. Vocabulary and syntax are equally affected. Society expresses its requirements directly in the linguistic material but not without opposition; the popular language strikes with spiteful and defiant humor at the official and semi-official discourse Slang and colloquial speech have rarely been so creative. It is as if the common man (or his anonymous spokesman) would in his speech assert his humanity against the powers that be, as if the rejection and revolt, subdued in the political sphere, would burst out in the vocabulary that calls things by their names: “headshrinker” and “egghead,” “boob tube,” “think tank,” “beat it” and “dig it,” and “gone, man, gone.” — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 378

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding and to the idea of vernacular resistance against bureaucratic language. — connects to: Political discourse redefines contested terms so opposition becomes definitionally impossible; Linguistic philosophy suppresses what speech reveals about the society that speaks it — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 652; Language itself is a political battlefield when discourse is indoctrinated — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 713 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Language itself is a political battlefield when discourse is indoctrinated #expands (0.85) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 713
• Linguistic philosophy suppresses what speech reveals about the society that speaks it #corroborates (0.82) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 652
• Discourse constrains but does not fully determine what can be said #expands (0.80) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 55
• Racist talk is how ordinary people act without elite discourse power #exemplifies (0.78)