Language

Return to Common Sense

July 11, 2010

Section: Introduction – Language

“Liberals have hijacked the English language by redefining terms to hide their bad intentions and rewrite history according to a dishonest agenda.”

“Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, function, and division of society.” John Adams

Philosophy (Background, Issues, Objectives):

Political correctness is allowing liberals to subvert our society.

Liberals have morphed from reactionary lovers of the good old days into leftists enamored with communism (anti-democracy) and socialism (anti-capitalism).
Liberals have embraced destroying and discrediting America as a vehicle to rebuild America in their dis-proven economic and governmental image.
Each Saturday Senate Democrat leaders map message points with congressional Democrat guests booked on Sunday talk shows.

Political Correctness takes a lot from classic Marxism.

Political Correctness is a façade sold as tolerance and a way to heave guilt upon soft consciences.
Political Correctness is a yoke allowing the words of others to shame us into silence or inaction.
Political Correctness is cultural Marxism, and thrives on lies.
Political Correctness, like Marxism (economics), uses a single factor (power) to explain history.
With Political Correctness certain “victim” groups are deemed to be “good.”
Both Political Correctness and Marxism take from one to give to another (or keep for themselves).
Both Political Correctness and Marxism have a method of analyzing situation (deconstruction) that automatically gives them the answers they want.

Language obfuscation and euphemisms obscure true meanings and intentions:

Progressive vs. actual regressive agenda, returning to dis-proven socialism and communism agenda.
Spending vs. investments (increased costs vs. masked cost increase).
Estate tax vs. Death tax (penalize rich vs. penalize the dead).
Pro-choice vs. Pro-abortion (fetus vs. unborn).
Illegal alien vs. Undocumented worker (lawbreaker vs. missing paperwork).
“Swiftboating” vs. exposing lies (revealing self-glorifying politician’s exaggerations and fabrications).
Global War on Terror vs. Overseas Contingency Operation (war vs. deployment)

Liberal euphemisms are used to obfuscate imprecise language.

· Public assistance programs / government programs disguises desire for taxpayer-subsidized entitlement programs / taxpayer-funded appropriation.

· “Social justice” refers to a controversial package of goals including political redistribution of wealth, gay marriage, and a campaign against “institutional racism,” “classism,” “ableism,” and “heterosexism.”

· “Secure livelihoods” and “strong economies” refers to redistribution of wealth.

· The plight of the homeless disguises people who are victims of their own poor choices, with the exception of the mentally incompetent.

· Global warming / global climate change disguises the theory of man-made global climate change.

· Greenhouse gas disguises the attack on carbon dioxide - the essential ingredient for all plant life.

· Equal rights for (fill in the blank) disguises the desire for preferential treatment for (fill in the blank).

· Gun control disguises desire to disarm the law-abiding populace.

· Universal health care disguises the desire for access to affordable health insurance.

Sometimes it is hard to decipher what liberals really mean when they shout out their rhetoric, their snazzy phrases, and meaningless, faux-academic diction.

“Diversity” means to surround oneself with other cultures to assuage white guilt.
“Invest” means to perform a redistribution of wealth so workers can pay fro those who do not want to work.
“Global Citizen” usually means the speaker is embarrassed to say he is an American.
“Feminist” means women are equal and deserve more, unless they are conservative.
“Affirmative Action” means preferential treatment in perpetuity.
“Heterosexist” means the need to value gay and lesbian friends.
“Environmentalism” means support for eco-friendly lifestyle despite any and all factual data to the contrary.

Even common phrases have morphed into unintelligible bafflegab.

Alcoholics are called Anti-sobriety Activists.
Bum is called a Displaced individual.
Crooks are called Morally or Ethically Challenged Individual.
Drug Addicts are called Chemically Challenged.
Federal Spending is called Savings.
Hunger is called Very Low Food Security.
Insane People are called Selectively Perceptive.
Old People are called Gerontologically Advanced.
Overexpansion of the Money Supply has been called Global Savings Glut.
Economic Stimulus stimulates the government by pork spending.
Community Organizer is a government paid outside agitator.
Advocacy Journalism is agenda driven indoctrination of unsuspecting consumer.

Congress has embraced Orwellian Newspeak to name legislation to hide its true intent.

· H.R. 3567 or "The Respect for Marriage Act" repeals the federal Defense of Marriage Act , states have the right to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

· The "Employee Free Choice Act" (H.R. 800) replaces the existing secret ballot elections for union membership with a system in which workers must publicly sign union cards; in effect, no free choice.

· The "Internet Freedom Preservation Act" expands Internet regulation by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the exact opposite of Internet freedom.

· The "American Clean Energy and Security Act" raises energy prices while subsidizing unproven energy sources and taxing reliable energy sources to force costlier energy options on the public.

· "America's Healthy Future Act" is in essence government-controlled socialized medicine, harming the health of Americans, exacting heavy costs and restricting freedom of choice.

Global War on Terror has generated its own doublespeak to obscure meaning and intent:

Terrorism vs. violent extremism.
Serial killers vs. man-caused afflictions.
Terrorist vs. Freedom Fighter (target civilians vs. target military) or totalitarianists.
Debriefing vs. interrogation.
Aggressive interrogation vs. torture.
Redeployment vs. exit strategy (“cut and run” vs. strategic redeployment).
Self injurious behavior incidents vs. suicide attempts.

Transference is a political tactic used to project personal shortcoming as opponent weakness.

Accusation of Republican voter disenfranchisement vs. Democrat convictions on voter intimidation.
Republican across the board tax cuts vs. Democrat charges of tax cuts for the rich.
Republican welfare reform vs. Democrat charges of targeting the poor.

Principles:

Accurate and descriptive terminologies are required for understanding.

Spin control is recasting the truth to sound better than it is.
Hyperbole and demagoguery exaggerate and confuse understanding.

Recommendations:

Reject Political Correctness, and reuse original objective terminology.

Accurately label pro-choice as pro-abortion.
Accurately label budget investments as tax increases.
Accurately label affirmative action as government sanctioned racial discrimination.
Accurately label terrorists as islamo-fascists.
Accurately label providing aid and comfort to enemies during wartime as treason.

References:

“Conservapedia” conservative alternative to Wikipedia at www.conservapedia.com .

Lake Superior State University has compiled Banished Word Lists 1995 (www.lssu.edu/banished/).

“What Are Leftists?” by John J. Ray dated June 20, 2002 published by Front Page Magazine at http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=1226 .

“Stop Calling Them Liberals” by John L. Perry dated October 10, 2002 published by News Max at http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/10/10/181448.shtml .

“Exposing America’s Enemies: the ‘Social Justice Seeking’ Communist Left” by Linda Kimball dated May 6, 2006 published by the Conservative Voice at http://www.theconservativevoice.com/article/14399.html .

“Exposing America’s Enemies, Part2: Communist Progressive Democrats” by Linda Kimball dated May 22, 2006 published by The Conservative Voice at http://www.theconservativevoice.com/article/14769.html .

“Harry Reid & The End of Liberal Thought” by Dennis Prager dated May 23, 2006 published by Real Clear Politics at http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/05/harry_reid_the_end_of_liberal.html .

“Doublespeak and the War on Terrorism” by Timothy Lynch dated September 6, 2006 published by The Cato Institute at http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6654 .

“Story is none too ‘swift’” by Mike Rosen dated October 27, 2006 published by Rocky Mountain News at http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/opinion_columnists/article/0,2777,DRMN_23972_5096616,00.html .

“No more ‘hungry’ Americans: US government says” dated November 20, 2006 published by Breitbart at http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/11/20/061120233728.nxqedf25.html .

“Political Correctness – The Liberal Brand of Censorship” by Michael Bresciani dated December 13, 2006 published by American Daily at http://www.americandaily.com/article/16777 .

“Deciphering Pelosi” by Robert M. Goldberg dated January 11, 2007 published on The American Spectator at http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=10863 .

“The Left’s Rhetorical ‘Escalation’” by Lynn Sweet dated January 16, 2007 published by Front Page Magazine at http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=26443 .

“Political Correctness: The Ultimate Gag Order” by James T. Moore dated February 12, 2007 published by American Daily at http://www.americandaily.com/article/17658 .

“Anything Goes in America, If you know what to name it” by JB Williams dated May 25, 2007 published by American Daily at http://www.americandaily.com/article/18957 .

“Playing With Words is Serious Business” by George de Poor Handlery dated June 19, 2007 published by Intellectual Conservative at http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2007/06/19/playing-with-words-is-serious-business/ .

“Federal Reserve’s NewSpeak” by Tom Brewton dated September 12, 2007 published by American Daily at http://www.americandaily.com/article/20246 .

“Communitarianism: America’s Downward Path to Obscurity” by James T. Moore dated September 19, 2007 published by American Daily at http://www.americandaily.com/article/20324 .

“The Left attempts to define Political Correctness” by David Huntwork dated September 21, 2007 published by American Daily at http://www.americandaily.com/article/20346 .

“Semantics Lesson: On the Meaning of ‘Moderate’ and ‘Bipartisan’” by Ross Mackenzie dated January 17, 2008 published by Town Hall at http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RossMackenzie/2008/01/17/semantics_lesson_on_the_meaning_of_moderate_and_bipartisan .

“Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” dated March 8, 2008 published by Media Myth Busters at http://mediamythbusters.com/index.php?title=Swift_Boat_Veterans_for_Truth .

“Redefining ‘Swiftboating’ and Rewriting History” by Henry P. Wickham, Jr. dated April 20, 2008 published by American Thinker at http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/04/redefining_swiftboating_and_re.html .

“Terror Terminology” by Oliver North dated May 16, 2008 published by Town Hall at http://www.townhall.com/columnists/OliverNorth/2008/05/16/terror_terminology .

“War of Words – Fighting terror with a dictionary” by Stephen Schwartz dated May 30, 2008 published by The Weekly Standard at http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/153odjii.asp .

“The Debilitating Nature of Political Correctness” by A.W.R. Hawkins dated November 21, 2008 published by Human Events at http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=29578 .

“Leftist Speak” by Don Feder dated February 27, 2009 published by Front Page Magazine at http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=1FF0814F-69DD-48D9-9403-56C64C4DFBCB .

“1984 in 2009?” by Rich Galen dated March 27, 2009 published by Town Hall at http://townhall.com/columnists/RichGalen/2009/03/27/1984_in_2009 .

“Perilous Euphemisms” by Susanne M. Reyto dated June 19, 2009 published by Front Page Magazine at http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=35276 .

“Why is it So Hard Communicating With Liberals” by Bob Stapler dated August 4, 2009 published by Intellectual Conservative at http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2009/08/04/why-is-it-so-hard-communicating-with-liberals/ .

“The Liberal Lexicon… Emphasis on the Con” by Warner Todd Huston dated August 7, 2009 published by American Daily at http://americandaily.com/index.php/article/1893 .

“The Point of the Dagger” by Jed Gladstein dated September 5, 2009 published by American Thinker at http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/09/the_point_of_the_dagger.html .

“Welcome to the World of Newspeak” by Janet Levy dated October 22, 2009 published by American Thinker at http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/10/welcome_to_the_world_of_newspe.html .

“The AT Readers’ Complete Lexicon of Political Speech” by Lee Cary dated November 15, 2009 published by American Thinker at http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/11/the_at_readers_complete_lexico.html .

“Re-booting the debate” by Michael D. Harbison dated November 30, 2009 published by American Thinker at http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/11/rebooting_the_debate.html .

“Doublespeak: The Language of Deception Part 1” by Marsha West dated February 10, 2010 published by Web Commentary at http://www.webcommentary.com/php/ShowArticle.php?id=westm&date=100209 .

“Doublespeak: The Language of Deception Part 2” by Marsha West dated February 21, 2010 published by News With Views at http://www.newswithviews.com/West/marsha187.htm .

“Doublespeak: The Language of Deception Part 3” by Marsha West dated February 25, 2010 published by Conservative Crusader at http://www.conservativecrusader.com/articles/doublespeak-the-language-of-deception-part-3 .

“Doublespeak: The Language of Deception Part 4” by Marsha West dated March 11, 2010 published by American Daily at http://americandaily.com/index.php/article/3250 .

“Doublespeak: The Language of Deception Part 5” by Marsha West dated March 16, 2010 published by American Daily at http://americandaily.com/index.php/article/3267 ..

“Code Words” by John Leo dated March 17, 2010 published by National Review Online at http://article.nationalreview.com/428189/code-words/john-leo .

“How to Understand a Liberal: A Dictionary, Part 1” by Jason Rantz dated July 11, 2010 published by Human Events at http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=37996 .