Progressive Language Abuse

            One of the political left’s major cultural contributions has been the wholesale debauchery of the language. They have succeeded in capturing control of much of the public discourse in the mainstream media, in academia, and in public education. Here is a partial list of their words or their definitions, which many people now accept uncritically:

Affordable – applies to housing only. There are no such things as affordable clothes or cars. This word replaced more accurate words and phrases: cheap, low cost, and less expensive. One of those imprecise pc words beloved by collectivists, it applies to government housing, which has been around forever but has only recently become affordable.

African-American – What happened to colored, Negro, and my favorite, black?

I will call people whatever they wish but why seven syllables when one (black) will do? Whatever happened to “Black is beautiful”? And as long as we are acceding to people’s wishes, we should lose the name Caucasian (most white folks aren’t from the Caucasus); white will do.

            America – Progressives have their own version of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” Their version: how does America suck? Let me count the ways.

            Business – bad

            Big business – really bad

            Climate change – Do readers remember global warming?  Now it’s climate change because there has been an embarrassing lack of warming for the last ten years; climate change is the preferred term, just in case things begin to cool. Environmentalists will then still have an excuse for government intrusion into your business.

            Corporate – really bad big business

            Diversity – This word applies to race, ethnicity, sex, and sexual preference only. It excludes ideas or opinions that depart from pc orthodoxy. For example, the American educational establishment discourages the expression of conservative, Christian, or orthodox Jewish ideas. The thought police call those ideas hate speech. And Lord help a conservative or Christian minority who espouses views that depart from the pc catechism.

            Environmentalism – An intolerant religious movement that brooks no opposition to its beliefs. Liberal columnist Ellen Goodman, for example, compares global warming skeptics to holocaust deniers.

            Evolve – that’s what Republicans do when they become more like Democrats. According to the chattering classes, they have “grown.”

            Gay – This once meant happy and carefree. Now it means homosexual. It’s an Orwellian use of language to hide the reality of the disorder it describes. It’s like “pro choice,” which covers a bogus right to kill babies in the womb, or “affirmative action,” which legitimizes racial preferences or reverse racism.

            Green – another religious word from the environmental catechism. People looking for its origins should read Charles Reich’s 1970’s howler, The Greening of America.

            Green job – What color are other jobs?   

            Homophobia – “Homo” means man. “Phobia” means fear of. So the word means fear of men? “Homo” also means the same. Does homophobia mean fear of the same?

Infrastructure – This apparently refers to roads, bridges, tunnels, reservoirs, the electrical grid, and so forth. “Crumbling infrastructure” is a favorite progressive locution. President Obama promised to fix the crumbling infrastructure and also to provide jobs.

Living wage – Those not receiving a living wage are now dead.   

Multicultural – The term probably originated with the Marxist Frankfort School. In practice it means anti Christian, anti Western, anti American, and anti white male.

            Native American – Readers know that Columbus called the aboriginal people he encountered Indians because he thought he had found the Indies, but why is that mistake any worse than Native American? After all, while our aboriginal people didn’t call themselves Indians, nor did they call themselves Americans. America was named for the cartographer Amerigo Vespucci who was the first to chart Columbus’s voyage to the New World. So why is Native American better than Indian? Racially, our indigenous peoples look more like Indians from India than white 15^th century Italians from Florence.

Part II

            Person – instead of man, woman, gentleman or lady, people now use inclusive language, another pc form, ostensibly to make women feel better, for example, “chairperson,” “foreperson,” and “spokesperson.” It appears that “man” must be removed everywhere: not mankind but humankind. I wonder if man should be removed from human: not a human being but a huperson being. And why are personnel departments now called human resources departments? How about huperson resources instead, but if person is preferred elsewhere, what is wrong with personnel?

            Progressive – the word now favored by many on the left. Apparently “liberal” is seen as a pejorative by some on the left. But progressive means the same thing: big government will fix everything, and anyone who disagrees is selfish, racist, sexist, homophobic, and xenophobic and wants your mom and dad in the street eating Alpo.  

            PC pronoun/antecedent abuse – It was once good form to write or say “Everyone should bring his book” not “Everyone should bring their books” or “Every parent should read to his child” not “Every parent should read to their child.” Male pronouns stood for male and female. Now the anthrophobia is so severe that the rule is broken everywhere with regularity. People with an aversion to inclusive male pronouns could say or write “Parents should read to their children...” where the plural pronoun “their” agrees with the plural noun “parents,” but they don’t. Either they don’t know that “everyone” is a singular antecedent and should therefore be followed by a singular pronoun, or they refuse to follow the rule to avoid being accused of using sexist language. This pc aversion to using masculine nouns and pronouns to stand for both male and female is just plain silly. PC women lack self confidence (and pc men are whipped).

            Racist – Anyone who disagrees with collectivist social or political ideas is a racist. It’s also one of the weapon words used to cut off debate. And it works. Corporate and political leaders live in constant fear of being labeled racists. A racist is anyone who departs from pc orthodoxy. If one disagrees with affirmative action, he is a racist. If he disagrees with President Obama (this stated explicitly by Jeannine Garofalo), he is a racist. If he disagrees with campus speech codes, he is a racist.

            Rainforest – What ever happened to jungles? I guess “Save the rainforests” is more compelling than “Save the jungles.”