Have you noticed how our language is changing?
At a congressional hearing on “Birthing While Black,” nearly every politician used the words “birthing people” instead of “women” or “mothers.” Asked why, Shalanda Young, President Joe Biden’s budget director, said, “Our language needs to be more inclusive.”
Activists have also changed “equality” to “equity” and “affirmative action” to “diversity.”
The Associated Press no longer uses “mistress.” It tells reporters to use “companion, friend or lover.”
Worse, certain speech is now labeled “violence.”
Calling a transgender woman a man is “an act of violence,” says transgender actress Laverne Cox.
Last week, the American Booksellers Association apologized for promoting a book on gender dysphoria after activists called it “anti-trans.” The book is hardly “anti-trans.” The Economist and the Times of London called it one of the best books of the year. But the Booksellers Association actually groveled, calling promoting the book “violent.”
Tim Sandefur of the Goldwater Institute says it’s dangerous to call words violence.
“The only way human beings can deal with one another is through language, discussion, debate,” he says in my new video. “If we say that that’s violence, then the only way for us to relate to one another is through power.”
I push back. “You’re white. Why should anybody listen to you about this?”
“Because what I say has, or doesn’t have, merit on its own,” he replies. “A big problem with the social justice movement is the idea that people’s mindset is controlled by their skin color. That may be called ‘anti-racism’ today, but it’s just plain old-fashioned racism.”
Linguist John McWhorter, author of the forthcoming book “Woke Racism,” adds, “It can be really hard for us to talk to each other, because we don’t know what the words we’re using mean.”
“The idea is, wherever there are white and black disparities, we’re supposed to call that phenomenon ‘racism,'” says McWhorter. “It never fully holds together.”
“Latinx” is another new term created by activists.
And yet, says Sandefur, “‘Latino’ originated as a reaction led by Hispanic people! They chose the word Latino or Latina. And now here’s a largely white, middle-class movement of social justice activists telling other people, ‘No, no, you can’t make distinctions in gender that way.'”
“Largely white?” I ask.
“The social justice movement in general is a largely white, upper-middle-class, college-educated movement,” he replies. “You hardly find anybody in the Hispanic community who prefers the term ‘Latinx.'”
He’s right. Only 4% of Hispanics prefer the term.
It’s hard to keep up with what’s OK and what’s forbidden.
Students at the University of Illinois-Chicago recently became upset because law professor Jason Kilborn included the N word, with only the first letter shown, in an exam on employment discrimination. He’d used the same word in exams for 10 years.
But this year, one student said she “had to seek counsel immediately after the exam to calm myself.”
McWhorter says those students are lying. Why?
“Claiming that kind of victimhood gives them a sense of belonging, of togetherness, a sense that they’re contributing to a struggle that their ancestors dealt with in a more concrete way.”
The students demanded the professor be punished. He was. The law school suspended him in the name of “social justice.”
“Social justice seeks to redistribute wealth and power between groups to suit what some political authority thinks is the right outcome,” says Sandefur.
I push back. “Social justice just means it’s time to pay attention to the minorities who never got justice.”
“No,” he responds. “Social justice (says), ‘We’re going to reorganize how people live their lives, silence some groups that have been heard more often.'”
It’s as if America is moving toward “1984,” George Orwell’s novel, in which government controls people’s thoughts by creating a new language, Newspeak.
The only way to stop it, says McWhorter, is to push back.
“Enlightened America needs to develop a backbone and start getting used to being called racist on Twitter. Just withstand it. Keep their voices out there. Make us understand what true justice is.”
We are definitely moving towards George Orwell’s “1984”. The truly educated will not want this but the rich, white, edumacated of today tell us that we are all racist, xenophobic, uneducated, dirty masses that need re-education.
When I became an American I took the Oath of Allegiance very, very seriously. It’s not like I had to become a citizen, after all. I had a Green Card and I am a citizen of both the United Kingdom and Switzerland. But the United States is home. I have real skin in the game. I’d attended and American university, my friends are here, I have a job, a family and I pay taxes.
This is NOT the America I swore to defend. I am truly horrified by the wokesters and proponents of CRT. I’m terrified of associating with people of color out fear that whatever I do or say is wrong. This is not my America. In 10 years I’m going to retire. I have choices. And if this country doesn’t change I’m out.
It’s kind of hard to call my wife “It”.
One of my best friends is black. He is just having a fun time as black activists, with no education or experience working in the USA economy, are just plain crazy and that the people that listen to these activists are insane. He says we should be plain laughing
At anyone that buys into the woke language!!
Screw WOKE, I’m going back to sleep. It’s all bs.
It has begun–the indoctrination, the re-education. Somewhat subtle but unmistakable. While reading an article online, I noticed that the writer never used the pronouns “he” or “she” in referring to people in the article. They were only noted as “they.” That is not simply ungrammatical, but also deceptive. As a writer myself, I will not comply.
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street has been renamed …. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right” George Orwell. “1984”….seem familiar?
Glad I had the time that I had. Would not care to be a part of the future.
“Woke” is incorrect English. The correct word is “Awakened”. Anyone using “Woke” is either too ignorant, too lazy, too rebellious, or some combination of the three, to speak actual correct English.
I have been concerned about the distortions that have been occuring in the definitions of our language for some time. Here is a blurb I put together a couple of months about this very subject.
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WORDS
When engaging in a conversation with a friend or an opponent, or in a conservatism vs liberalism debate, it is important the words we speak and hear have the same definitions. If they don’t then we will not be communicating and the whole exercise becomes useless and, at best, a waste of time.
REPUBLIC or DEMOCRACY:
Every time I hear the word “democracy” I wonder whether the person using it knows the traditional and strict definition of the word. Whether it is being used by a politician, a TV newscaster, or in general conservation, the word is misused so often that it obviates any true understanding between the parties involved.
According to the strict and traditional definition of the word a Democracy is a place, or nation, where there are no laws. All decisions, no matter how important, or trivial, are made by a vote of the people. It is quite literally “mob rule.” Only in ancient Greece has a true democracy ever existed and it created huge inequalities. The problem a democracy creates is that it allows for wildly different decisions to be reached on the same or similar issues.
On the other hand a republic requires laws to be codified and applied equally to all persons and in all issues. In a republic, issues, permissions, and penalties, are bound by what the law says, and in the USA the interpretation of what the law says, and what the law intended, is assigned to a seperate and independent entity, our Supreme Court.
I believe it is time for everyone who know the difference between a democracy and a republic should start contacting all our friends, politicians, entertainment, and media types and demand they use the correct terminology in their utterances. When they don’t, their words have no more value than a bowl full of mush and in the end it exposes their ignorance.
JUSTICE:
The word “justice” is an absolute. In a strict legal environment it either exists, or it doesn’t.
The idea that there can be such things as “social justice” or “racial justice,” is abhorrant for, when used, those concepts are intended to be applied to selected groups, not to everyone. It is therefore quite literally exclusion and inequality by intention.
RACISM:
1950’s sociology textbook definition: “A personal belief in either the superiority or inferiority of one race when compared to another”.
An inanimate object, like a statue, cannot possibly be racist because it cannot hold a belief. This word is thrown about all the time when the accurate word should have been “bigotry.”
MILITIA:
We see this word used a lot when used to describe a radical conservative or liberal action group. A couple of years ago I contacted the US Library of Congress and asked them to return to me the definition of that word as could be found in the oldest dictionary in which the word could be found. It turns out that today’s definition is almost identical to what it was in the 1700s.
10 U.S. Code § 246 – Militia: composition and classes
(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.
(b) The classes of the militia are—
(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and
(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.
(Note in particular the 9th word in the first line in subparagraph (a)
INFLATION:
DEF: Inflation is an increase in the amount of money in circulation without a corresponding increase in the amount of goods and services produced or provided. This is what we have been seeing ever since the Biden Aministration came into office. What we have been seeing is better described as “monetary inflation” and it is caused by government deficit spending or the issuing of government monetary obligations.
At this point it is extremely important to note that “inflation” is NOT the same thing as rising prices. Monetary inflation is the CAUSE of rising prices.
Politicians and media people misuse this word all the time and we should start by sending them emails telling them to use the correct terminology.
BUSINESS TAXATION:
At this point let’s have a quick look at a couple of large American corporations…. you know, the ones the Democrats call evil big business.
If we examine the NET profit that large grocery chain stores make in the US we find that after they pay all their taxes and business operating expenses the answer is about 2% net profit.
Looking at Exxon/Mobil’s federal, state, county, and local, taxes, we find that Exxon/Mobil pays more in taxes than they get to keep in profits.
Not exactly the picture the Democrats paint about big business is it?
Does anyone know the title of the book on gender dysphoria mentioned in the article? It would be refreshing to read an emprical and non-politicised view on this subject matter