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I am posting this as a benchmark, not because I think I'm playing very well yet.  The idea would be post a video every month for a ye...

Friday, March 3, 2023

Progressive guide to language

 Justice vocabulary.   

This guide discourages us from using terms like "multicultural" and even "diverse." Then do all the DEI offices have to change their names? Sheesh.  The Orwellian euphemizing and sanitizing of language is exhausting and also deeply confusing, and I'm sure that things will change in the next 10 minutes, so that BIPOC (replacing BAME?) will be replaced by some other term. Look, nobody is in favor of overtly offensive language, like the n- word or its equivalent for other groups, but, for example, I know Indians, and they call themselves that (not "native Americans."). The guide encourages us to use the language that members of a group actually use about themselves, but then turns around and forbids that very same language.  I could forbid "Latinx" since that is not how people self-identify (typically). This double-standard runs throughout the guide. 

We cannot say "immature" or "childish" because that is agist.  We cannot say "child pornography," but rather  "child abuse content."  !!!  Who benefits from this change in terminology?  Do blind people object to colloquial expressions like "turn a blind eye," or is this just a conspiracy to make people tongue-tied and unable to object to things. If you are suffering from "famine," do you object to the word "famine"?  

At certain points, the guide says that a word is forbidden, except in reference to a person who uses it of themselves.  So we cannot talk about a "victim," but a "victim" can refer to self as such. Deeply confusing.  

The words "alcoholic" and "addict" are also on the list of words that should not be used. But that is what the 12-step people use in self-reference. This is not a guide based on the preferences of groups, but on the preferences of activists who purport to speak for the groups themselves.  

Could we make the case the euphemism, while not overly evil in all cases, is put in the service of evil in many cases?  With great intentions, of course.  

  

2 comments:

Thomas Basbøll said...

This show seems to be (feels like it's being) run by people who would rather tell their friends that they're not good enough than tell their enemies that they're bad.

It's like a road construction company that has an eye for good intentions.

Leslie B. said...

Agree with Thomas.