Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Noun Phrase 189. The noun phrase today is
"the silent majority."Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. If someone refers to
the silent majority, it is usually in reference to the majority of people in
society , especially voters who have feelings and opinions that are not often
expressed in the media. So especially since this is an election year in the US
for president, this term may come up more the closer and closer we get to towards
you know November or when the time is for election. You might start to hear this
term more often. All right. Let's continue. The silent majority does not attend
protests or demonstrations nor are they very outspoken on social media. So
they're not the type of people that's out there screaming or yelling or even
risking putting their name on something but yet they still have feelings and
they still have thoughts. Yes. Those are what we refer to as the silent majority,
especially if you think that they think a certain way as a group. All right. Let's continue.
Often media will focus on small groups and portray them in a way to make others
think that this is how most people feel and think. You know, in the society. Even
though the silent majority is overshadowed by political active groups
they can be a powerful voting bloc if they don't like what they see happening
in society. So if they don't like what's going on they may still go out and be
determined to vote. Even though they're not outspoken. They're not screaming
about it. They're not writing things on the Internet. They're not out there
protesting but they they're there. They're still there. Okay. Let's continue.
The phrase was first recorded in 1874. So it's been around a long time more than a
hundred years and has been used by a number of presidents including Calvin
Coolidge in his 1920 political campaign. However
Richard Nixon is given most credit for popularizing it in a televised speech he
gave in 1969. Yeah. This, this was before his scandals. Before Watergate and stuff.
Remember when he won his elections, he won them actually by a considerable
number. He used used it to claim that the majority of citizens supported his
policies. Even though they were not politically active. Okay. Let's continue.
All right and we got a we got three examples here to show how you may hear
it used. Number one. The silent majority may not like what they see being
reported in the media and may vote accordingly.
That's one possibility or number two here. The poll numbers reported in the
media are often skewed which means they're really often not correct.
There's a number of ways they do this, they often do over sampling which means
that you know if they want the poll numbers to favor one party more than
another, they will ask more people they know who belong to that party the, the
questions or plus nowadays because you can buy so much information from social
media groups like Facebook and Google or whatever you can pretty much know how
people are going to vote by you know , what whatever websites they visit. Or if they
write something online or anything like that. It's to the point now that you know
they could if they want to put a poll together they can make it any number
they really want it to be. They just have to know the certain people to call. They
call those people and they'll get that number. Whatever number they want it to
appear like. Remember most polls are usually made by the parties themselves
or by news networks that usually tend to be biased in favor of one candidate
instead of another. All right. Let's continue.
Okay. The majority may like to see what is reported in the news. And okay so I mean... okay so the poll
numbers reported in the media are often skewed. They may not be how the
silent majority feel. So that's how we would use it and the third one here.
Number three. That politician claims the silent majority is behind him. Well
they're behind it means they're supporting him. Okay. Anyway, I hope you
got it. I hope it's clear. I hope it was informative. Thank you for your time.
Bye-bye.