I am linking to Jeff Deist’s article at Liberty Loft, because it is about defining terms. The epigraph at the beginning of his article is a quote from George Orwell: "If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought."
Today, “Political Correctness” is out. “Woke” is in:
Like culture, language is not
property, and it cannot be “owned.” But it can be influenced and steered by
linguistic vandals seeking to topple old understandings and leave us all
overwhelmed and demoralized by the ever-shifting new terminology.
In the quaint, innocent days of
2015, we still called this progressive impulse “political correctness.” I attempted to
define it then:
Political correctness is the
conscious, designed manipulation of language intended to change the way people
speak, write, think, feel, and act, in furtherance of an agenda.
PC is best understood as
propaganda, which is how I suggest we approach it. But unlike propaganda, which
historically has been used by governments to win favor for a particular
campaign or effort, PC is all-encompassing. It seeks nothing less than to mold
us into modern versions of Marx’s un-alienated society man, freed of all his
bourgeois pretensions and humdrum social conventions.
Like all propaganda, PC
fundamentally is a lie. It is about refusing to deal with the underlying nature
of reality, in fact attempting to alter that reality by legislative and social
fiat. A is no longer A.
Today, of course, PC is
obsolete—replaced entirely by the far broader concept of “woke,” which goes
well beyond language.
Woke, whether a slur or not, may
be used very broadly to represent strident left progressive beliefs regarding
race, sex, sexuality, equality, climate change, and the like. Woke demands
ever-changing language, and constantly creates new words while eliminating old
ones. As a result, “cancellation,” de-platforming, and loss of employment or
standing all loom large, giving pause to speakers and writers who must consider
a new woke orthodoxy.
Ultimately, imposed language attempts
to control our actions. . . .
Mr. Deist’s full article, which can serve as a preview of
his forthcoming journal article, is at The Liberty Loft here.
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