Everything You Say

I'm struggling to start this post, because it works off the premise that everything you say - & the way you say it - has a layer of meaning provided by you (the author) & your reader/listener, based on your background, psychology, state of mind, ability to perceive, communicate, interpret, ... & you end up down the rabbit hole losing all sense of proportion & proper grammar.

Then I thought of the old Police song "Every step you take", & its meanings, relative to the name of the band & the lead singer.

I'll just start again, before my head explodes or crashes into the ceiling before I can find the "Eat me" cake.

What you say says more about you than it does the topic you are discussing, in general. Politics is a classic example. The larger the audience, the bigger the issue, the more strident the voice, the more likely that the communication is not in the words. I should say, the true meaning is not in the words. Politicians are not a special case, but they are a classic example of assuming an audience & treating it in a special way.
Politicians treat people like morons (who else would vote for them?), & everyone knows that the best way to communicate with a moron is to speak louder, slower, & use small words & non-threatening hand gestures. Politicians don't say "You are a moron, so I'll speak slower", but by their actions they demonstrate how they relate to their audience.

Then there's the words that they use to communicate their message. An acquaintance long ago introduced me to "projection" - saying something about someone with the hope that nobody thinks the same of you.

A classic politician statement will go along the lines of "My learned opponent is lying!" I've obviously cleaned that up & made it more polite, but I think I have succinctly represented 50% of politicians' pronouncements. Let's look closely at what they've said, within the context of their belief that they are talking to morons.
They don't say "I am telling the truth!" Morons don't believe you when you say that. Politicians also don't say "They're lying - just ask them!" because morons don't follow up on information provided. (Let's forget about the logic puzzle of how to ask a question of someone who is suspected of lying.)

A politician is actually making an empty statement when they say that their opponent is lying (or that their opponent eats babies, will raise taxes, or intends to sell the public service to an overseas consultancy).
They are in fact expressing a fear. They hope that you'll acquire the fear that they express - that the opponent is untrustworthy, &, more importantly, that you will think that they (the politician) ARE trustworthy. After all, there couldn't possibly be two politicians who lie. The deepest fear that the politician has is that they have lower credibility than their opponent, & they express that fear by wanting you to believe their opponent (has) less.

Children do this a lot. "Johnny, did you eat a cookie?" "No, it was Billy! I saw him!" This is a normal response regardless of whether a cookie was eaten in the first place. Johnny needs to be trusted. Someone needs to bear the blame. Billy isn't there to defend himself. Everyone's happy.

Politicians are slightly more efficient, in that you don't have to ask them if they've eaten a cookie, they will jump straight in to assuming that Billy ate one, & they just want to make sure that they're not covered in crumbs.