Language

Return to Common Sense

January 21, 2017

Section: Introduction – Language

“Liberal newspeak isn’t the work of the engineers of the left, but its marketers, who reframe everything in comforting language while teaching you to use the appropriate terms that change the context completely.” Daniel Greenfield.

“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.

In George Orwell’s “1984” doublespeak was the practice of reversing or distorting words and phrases to achieve an ignoble end.
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.

Kate Swift and Casey Miller wrote The Handbook of Nonsexist Writing in 1981.

The book served as a prototype of political correctness writing.
The book had two main premises, both of them dubious.

o The first was that sexism and sexual discrimination were embedded in the English language.

o The second was that the language needed to be radically revised in order to change society’s attitudes and make it more inclusive.

Political Correctness is Cultural Marxism.

Political Correctness seeks to impose a uniformity of thought and behavior and is quite totalitarian in nature.
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, like Marxism (economics), uses a single factor (power) to explain history.
Both Political Correctness and Marxism have a method of analyzing situation (deconstruction) that automatically gives them the answers they want.
Political Correctness says that all history is determined by power, by which groups hae power over which other groups.
Both Political Correctness and Marxism take from one to give to another (or keep for themselves).

Liberal euphemisms are used to obfuscate imprecise language.

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

The abuse of the word “justice” has become so widespread that you can immediately identify the political slant of any group just by looking for “justice” in their name or literature.

social justice
economic justice
racial justice
environmental justice
reproductive justice
climate justice
health care justice
immigrant justice
food justice
housing justice
gender justice
workplace justice
farmworker justice
urban justice
media justice
disability justice
transformative justice
birthing justice
prison justice

Clear speaking and clear writing are foundational to clear thinking, although “nuance” masquerades as sophistication while actually introducing obfuscation.

In many ways. Invariably, "many ways" refers to just one, or maybe a few, possibilities.
Sort of (and its variant "kind of"). Intended to indicate the speaker's unvoiced depths of intelligence and understanding.
Experts say. Attempts to impart a sense of fact-based knowledge gained from study and research, whether it exists or not.
Nuanced. Holy grail of liberals and intellectuals to puff up speaker’s ego providing clarity on a complex topic
Potential and potentially. Words that distort and attenuate meaning by injecting possibilities.
Allegation. Charges the commission of some act.
Phony laughter. Expression of smugness. (This offense does not involve words, but it is closely enough related to warrant mention)

Republican elites (Republicrats) obscure the true meaning of these 10 phrases:

Something must be done = Better to violate our oath of office and betray our base now rather than risk the wrath of the liberal media later.
Reagan couldn’t get nominated today = Thank goodness conservatives don’t have a real leader like that nowadays to expose our scam.
Leadership = Surrender to Democrats and liberal media now before it’s too late.
We need to focus on jobs = Thank goodness the economy sucks so we have an excuse for standing for nothing.
Team player = Somebody who cares more about being liked, getting their ego stroked, advancing their own ambitions, and/or getting a seat at our very wobbly table more than taking a stand.
Big Tent = Marginalize conservatives to avoid exposing the fact we’re actually embarrassed by the Republican Party platform.
Democrats weren’t going to budge = We either don’t care about your moral convictions or don’t share them. Either way, thank the God we constantly patronize with our contrived talking points we’ve still got the Democrats around to shift the blame to when we just really want to go home, or living up to our campaign promises to shrink government and defund Planned Parenthood is just too dang hard.
Incrementalism = Giving the Democrats 80% of what they want and then bragging half a loaf is better than none.
Bi-partisan = There’s just enough pork in this unconstitutional crap sandwich to justify voting for it.
Coalesce = Unite now to lose to Democrats even sooner.

Even common phrases have morphed into unintelligible bafflegab.

Alcoholics are called Anti-sobriety Activists.
Bum is called a Displaced individual.
Insane People are called Selectively Perceptive.
Drug Addicts are called Chemically Challenged.
Hunger is called Very Low Food Security.
Old People are called Gerontologically Advanced.
People want to keep money they’ve earned is called Greedy.
Crooks are called Morally or Ethically Challenged Individuals.
Objective, fact-based evaluation of climate data is called Climate Change Denier.
Federal Spending is called Savings.
Overexpansion of the Money Supply has been called Global Savings Glut.
Economic Stimulus stimulates the government by pork spending.
Voter fraud avoidance is called Voter Suppression.
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.

Euphemisms have become a big part of the Obama administration’s approach to the war on terror:

“Outliers” is their kinder, gentler term for “rogue states”
“Al-Qaeda core” are the al-Qaeda terrorists who survived the Bush presidency, then regrouped and multiplied under the Obama presidency.
“Overseas contingency operations” is the Obama administration’s Orwellian term for ”the global war on terror.”
“Man-caused disaster” is the Obama-speak for “terrorist attack.”
“Workplace violence” is how the Obama administration describes Islamic terrorist attacks that take place at work.
Violent extremism is how the Obama administration prefers to describe Islamic terrorism or jihadism because it gives them an opportunity to lump in the KKK, IRA, and Nazi skinhead groups who all together commit about 1% (or less) of terrorism.
“Kinetic military action” is how the Obama administration says “war” without upsetting anti-war groups.
“Leading from behind” is Obama’s “CYA” approach to foreign policy, which translates into, “we’ll wait until it’s too late to be effective, and when pressured, take some modest steps, but don’t blame us when the excrement hits the fan.” (Because it will.)
“Strategic patience” is related to Obama’s “leading from behind” philosophy; used in place of “dithering,” or “kicking the can down the road for the next president.”

“Freedom Fighter” target civilians vs. targeting military.
“Aggressive interrogation” is a means to disguise torture.
Redeployment vs. exit strategy (“cut and run” vs. strategic redeployment).

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 doublespeak.

Restore original objective meaning to euphemisms and code words.

References:

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

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

“The Little Blue Book” by George Lakoff published by Free Press, 2012.

“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 .

“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/ .

“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 .

“Illegal aliens are illegal and alien” dated December 29, 2010 published by The Washington Times at http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/29/illegal-aliens-are-illegal-and-alien/ .

“We Beg to Differ” by John Fricke dated January 14, 2011 published by American Thinker at http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/01/we_beg_to_differ.html .

“The Lingo of the Left” by David Solway dated April 21, 2011 published by Pajamas Media at http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-lingo-of-the-left/ .

“The Scourge of the Feminist Word Police” by Jacob Laksin dated May 18, 2011 published by Pajamas Media at http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-scourge-of-the-feminist-word-police/ .

“Justice Justice” by Zombie dated June 29, 2011 published by Pajamas Media at http://pajamasmedia.com/zombie/2011/06/29/justice-justice/ .

“The Department of Doublespeak” dated September 1, 2011 published by Investor’s Business Daily at http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/583622/201109011844/The-Department-Of-Doublespeak.htm .

“The Statist Dictionary” by Robert A. Hall dated September 17, 2011 published by American Thinker at http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/09/the_statist_dictionary.html .

“Warning: If There’s ‘Nuance,’ You’re Being Had” by Roland Toy dated December 1, 2011 published by American Thinker at http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/warning_if_theres_nuance_youre_being_had.html .

“@#$! Republicrats Say” by Steve Deace dated May 26, 2012 published by Town Hall at http://townhall.com/columnists/stevedeace/2012/05/26/republicrats_say .

“10 Concepts Liberals Talk About Incessantly But Don’t Understand” by John Hawkins by July 31, 2012 published by Town Hall at http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2012/07/31/10_concepts_liberals_talk_about_incessantly_but_dont_understand .

“Doublespeak is the Left’s Department of Religion” by Lincoln Brown dated September 20, 2012 published by Town Hall at http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/lincolnbrown/2012/09/20/doublespeak_is_the_lefts_department_of_religion .

“A Democratic Dictionary” by Jeff Bergner dated September 20, 2012 published by The Weekly Standard at http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/democratic-dictionary_652736.html .

“1984 + 29: As Orwell knew, taking over the culture starts with corrupting the language” by Victor Davis Hanson dated April 16, 2013 published by National Review Online at http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/345662/i1984i-29-victor-davis-hanson .

“Political Correctness Is Cultural Marxism” by W.A. Beatty dated July 6, 2013 published by American Thinker at http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/07/political_correctness_is_cultural_marxism.html .

“President Obama’s New American Vocabulary” by Victor Davis Hanson dated July 14, 2013 published by PJ Media at http://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/new-american-vocabulary/ .

“Liberal Newspeak” by Daniel Greenfield dated December 11, 2013 published by Canada Free Press at http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/59768 .

“The Obama Administration Debuts Its Latest Euphemism” by Debra Heine dated November 5, 2015 published by PJ Media at http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2015/11/05/the-obama-administration-debuts-its-latest-euphemism/ .

“The Liberal Translation Guide: 20 Translations of Things That Liberals Say” by John Hawkins dated January 21, 2017 published by Town Hall at http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2017/01/21/the-liberal-translation-guide-20-translations-of-things-that-liberals-say-n2274756 .