The Language Vandals

 

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Today, of course, PC is obsolete—replaced entirely by the far broader concept of “woke,” which goes well beyond language.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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New World Order or Old World Order?

 

Just when you thought the New World Order was inevitable, and it was the end of life in America as we know it, along comes Daniel Greenfield at FrontPageMag with some skeptical words of reassurance:

. . . The new world we live in now is one where Russia is trying to rebuild a Czarist empire, and China, Iran, and every other power or power that was, is fighting to recreate its glory days.

The patchwork international order had been a product of the Cold War that Bush and Gorbachev were eagerly bidding farewell to. Globalism, or the post-Cold War international order based on trade, human rights and conferences proved to be as much of a joke as the UN, the WTO, the NGOs and the multilateral organizations that served as its shaky infrastructure.

Bush envisioned "a world where the rule of law supplants the rule of the jungle" and "nations recognize the shared responsibility for freedom and justice" on the brink of the original Gulf War.

But the only law that ever existed was the law of force enforced by self-interest or idealism.

. . .

The old world order is the reality that once the meetings are done and the conferences are over, every country is all alone. Virtue signaling globalism means that everyone will fly Ukrainian flags, just as they expressed solidarity with Hong Kong and will hashtag Taiwan at need.

And then they’ll move on to the next political outrage, celebrity gossip or trending news.

. . .

A century of tired arguments have reduced us to the false choice between isolationism and internationalism. But at the height of our rising power in the 19th century, the United States was neither. It was not afraid of asserting its ideals, but neither was it foolish enough to believe that the rest of the world would go along or that we were obligated to make them all behave. We primarily pursued our own interests and we were not afraid of a little expansionism either. 

Most importantly, we did not see our place in the world as bound by the rest of the world.

 . . .

The American Revolution and the Constitution ushered in the true new world order not by seeking to control the world, but by showing the human race what was possible. Every effort to outdo that order with a new world order has failed.  . . .

Mr. Greenfield’s full article is here.  I would like to think he’s right.  

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Patriot Post and energy dependence

 

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Medical Schools: The New Church of Woke

 

It keeps getting worse.  Here’s Jim Thompson at Red State on “Medical Schools: The New Church of Woke”:

The effort to turn medical schools into expensive schools of sociology started before 2022. In 2019, the effort for equity and inclusion was being added, ad hoc, to how professors taught medical classes. Nothing grips the mind like informing medical students that systemic racism is to blame for obesity and other medical conditions inherent with a person’s personal and unhealthy choices.

The push to blame everything on racism hit overdrive in 2020, when George Floyd, an addict loaded on fatal doses of illegal drugs, died. Medical schools went on strike. Students left their classrooms and headed to “church” — outdoors, wearing masks and kneeling with “Black Lives Matter” signs. It’s quickly becoming a traditional denomination for the left: Photos of medical students kneeling and heads bowed for protesting too much whiteness in white coats.

Now, there is a concerted effort to take up the time of medical students with religious indoctrination – a catechism of systemic racism, anti-racism, equity, diversity and inclusion.

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has released its official Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Competencies for medical students to commit to memory and practice. No longer is it good enough to be a good doctor; now, before a student, then resident medical doctor, can ply their trade, they must be full, card-carrying members of a cult.

. . .

The medical profession has already given itself a black eye for following the COVID protocols required by the CDC and NIH.  It’s getting worse.  Read the rest at RedState here.

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Sophisticated Technology

Seen at PowerLine blog:

And why does the security cam image bring to mind all those photographs of UFO's?

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Discrediting our Founding Fathers: cont’d

 

The headline at the New York Post:  “Founding father James Madison sidelined by woke history in his own home”.  This blog recently linked to a similar reportabout Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia home Monticello.  And reader Ribicon at the Lucianne site – an aggregator – posted this comment and link:

Selection from 45 goals for the takeover of the USA by the communist party, as stated in 1963 [and as entered into the Congressional Record].

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the 'common man.'"

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the 'big picture.'"

The link: https://rense.com/politics6/com.htm [https://rense.com/politics6/com.htm]

Exit question: How many of these goals have been met?  (Spoiler Alert: most of them.)

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Your weekend meme

Seen on BookwormRoom:

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