It’s Only Words
In this video clip Newt Gingrich argues that Chris Matthews does not have the unilateral power to define words. In particular, Gingrich does not believe that “food stamps” is a racist word. Chris Matthews, on the other hand, believes that the word self-evidently means what he thinks it means and that Gingrich is simply evil for not using words in the manner he prescribes.
But of course Matthews has the power to redefine language. He has a secret license to make any word he likes mean whatever he likes. In fact Fox News reports that the State Department employs a person do exactly that. It’s chief diversity officer — censor librorum — has issued a list of proscribed words. Can you recognize any words that you might have been tempted to use?
Chief Diversity Officer John Robinson penned a column in the department’s latest edition of “State Magazine” advising readers on some rather obscure Ps and Qs.
Robinson ticked off several common phrases and went on to explain why their roots are racially or culturally insensitive. The result was a list of no-nos that could easily result in some tongue-tied U.S. diplomats, particularly in an administration that swaps “war on terror” for “overseas contingency operation” and once shied away from using the word “terrorism.”
For instance, Robinson warned, “hold down the fort” is a potentially insulting reference to American Indian stereotypes. …
He singled out another phrase, “Going Dutch,” as a “negative stereotype portraying the Dutch as cheap.”
And “rule of thumb,” he wrote, can according to women’s activists refer “to an antiquated law, whereby the width of a husband’s thumb was the legal size of a switch or rod allowed to beat his wife.”
Robinson neglected to mention that such a connotation might bring to mind the rule under which Muslims are still allowed to beat their wives. Here for example, is the YouTube guide to wife-beating etiquette and you can see for yourself. So the rule of thumb is to avoid using the words ‘rule of thumb’. And then one must guard against offending the Irish.
Robinson cited the cautionary tale of Nike rolling out a “Black and Tan” sneaker without realizing the phrase once referred to a group “that committed atrocities against Irish civilians.” Nike later apologized.
“Choose your words thoughtfully,” Robinson wrote. “Now that you know the possible historical context of the above phrases, perhaps you will understand why someone could be offended by their use. Let us agree that language will continue to evolve with continually improving consciousness and respect for others.”
Keep it up Mr. Robinson and soon there’ll be no words at all. What about the word flip-cam? And boondocks? And gung-ho? What about frog-march? Take it all down, for your work is cut out for you.
George Orwell predicted that the effect of this linguistic wowserism would progressively shrink the dictionary until we could just barely ask someone to pass the salt. Of course that may no longer be necessary once every right minded city has followed the lead of Stockport, Britain where they are now treated as dangerous objects. “Customers will have to ask staff specifically to hand over the shakers if they want to add salt to their meals.”
Orwell described a language called Newspeak in 1984, “In the novel, it refers to the deliberately impoverished language promoted by the state.” The whole idea behind Newspeak is to make it literally impossible to say anything which the party disapproves of because the word no longer exists.
By 2050—earlier, probably—all real knowledge of Oldspeak will have disappeared. The whole literature of the past will have been destroyed. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Byron—they’ll exist only in Newspeak versions, not merely changed into something different, but actually contradictory of what they used to be.
The obsession with racism has consigned the word ‘niggardly’ to linguistic death. Any use of this word is now fraught with the greatest danger, no matter what it used to mean in the dictionary.
On January 15, 1999, David Howard, a white aide to Anthony A. Williams, the black mayor of Washington, D.C., used “niggardly” in reference to a budget. This apparently upset one of his black colleagues (identified by Howard as Marshall Brown), who interpreted it as a racial slur and lodged a complaint. As a result, on January 25 Howard tendered his resignation, and Williams accepted it …
Shortly after the Washington incident, another controversy erupted over the use of the word at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. At a February 1999 meeting of the Faculty Senate, Amelia Rideau, a junior English major and vice chairwoman of the Black Student Union told the group how a professor teaching Chaucer had used the word niggardly. She later said she was unaware of the related Washington, D.C. controversy that came to light just the week before. She said the professor continued to use the word even after she told him that she was offended. “I was in tears, shaking,” she told the faculty. “It’s not up to the rest of the class to decide whether my feelings are valid.” …
In late January or early February 2002, a white fourth-grade teacher in Wilmington, North Carolina was formally reprimanded for teaching the word and told to attend sensitivity training The teacher, Stephanie Bell, said she used “niggardly” during a discussion about literary characters. Parent Akwana Walker, who is black, protested the use of the word, saying it offended her because it sounds similar to a racial slur. …
Dennis Boaz, a history teacher, sued the administrators of the Mendocino County Office of Education for defamation. Mr. Boaz, who was bargaining for Ukiah schoolteachers, wrote a letter saying that the “tenor of the negotiation tactics of the district office has become increasingly negative and niggardly.” The response was a memo from one defendant of the lawsuit that implied that Boaz was racist, and a letter cosigned by the other defendant and nine other individuals in the Mendocino County school system stating that Boaz’s comments were “racially charged and show a complete lack of respect and integrity toward Dr. Nash, Ukiah Unified District Superintendent,” who is black.
I think the State Department will find other countries to be frankly astonished by these proscriptions. It has probably never occurred to foreigners in the first place to find offense in the places the State Department’s diversity program detects.
In 1995, years before the incidents in Washington, Wilmington and Madison, The Economist magazine used the word “niggardly” in an article about the impact of computers and productivity: “During the 1980s, when service industries consumed about 85% of the $1 trillion invested in I.T. in the United States, productivity growth averaged a niggardly 0.8% a year.” The Economist later pointed out with amusement that it received a letter from a reader in Boston who thought the word “niggardly” was inappropriate. “Why do we get such letters only from America?” the British magazine commented.
Now ‘niggardly’ will be joined in the linguistic coffin by ‘food stamps’ and ‘Chicago’. People like Chris Matthews really do have the power to redefine the English language. And there is apparently nothing anyone can do about it.
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Pure Humpty-Dumptyism. Without that, argumentum ad hominem, and the fallacy tu quoque, most Leftists would not be able to argue at all.
Mathews is a nithling. In a battle of wits with the Newtster, he would soon find himself Newtered. / erc
There is a chink in Mr. Mathew’s armor. If he can say what is spick and span, can someone else can take a nip from this teapot? What if everyone decided to use a touch of the tar brush on him?
(Walt or someone with more talent – please continue)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs
What happens when Winston no longer fears the rats? To date, O’Brien hasn’t received the memo, and he doesn’t know what else to do.
The poetic annex to Ogden’s Basic English ought to cover everything you’d need
angel, arrow, beast, blind, bow, breast, bride, brow, bud, calm, child, cross, crown, curse, dawn, delight, dew, dove, dream, eagle, eternal, evening, evil, fair, faith, fate, feast, flock, flow, fountain, fox, gentle, glad, glory, god, grace, grape, grief, guest, hawk, heaven, hell, hill, holy, honey, honor, image, ivory, joy, lamb, lark, life, lion, lord, meadow, melody, mercy, noble, passion, perfume, pity, pool, praise, prayer, pride, priest, purple, rapture, raven, robe, rock, rose, rush, search, shining, shower, sorrow, soul, spear, spirit, storm, stream, strength, sword, thief, tower, travel, valley, veil, vine, violet, virgin, virtue, vision, wandering, wealth, weariness, weeping, wisdom, wolf, wonder.
How long until persons of Scottish or Irish ancestry protest the use of “Mac” as a slang term for any male (as in “Hey, Mac, move yer truck out of the way”) as an ethnic slur? Or Italian Americans complain about the slang use of “Guido”? And now that “gay” can no longer be used as a synonym for “cheerful,” can we still call a cigarette a “fag” without bloodshed? (Note to Wretchard: the Latin phrase in the second paragraph should be censor librorum. That was a frequent item on high school Latin exams back in the day.)
Words don’t really have definitions so much as interest and uses.
Consider Stanley Cavell on chair
The campaign for gay marriage strikes me mostly as trying to make the original meaning of marriage unthinkable, comparing it to Cavell’s chair.
Opponents are trying to preserve the word, being mostly favorable to gay civil unions.
“The game that’s being played here” as Chris Matthews said is mau mauing. He’s trying to frighten anybody he can from giving out a legitimate GOP message and throw them off their stride so that they are not effective and hopefully self destruct on camera and give in to the left-wing narrative.
It’s disgusting, bad for the country, and does America’s black population no favors.
I am outraged at the phrase “Chief Diversity Officer John Robinson.”
First, “Chief” is a sneering allusion to American Indians.
Second, “Diversity” slyly implies that some people are different (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) from others. Blatant racism!
Third, “Officer” is an anti-democratic term used to denote elite members of a police state wherein the 1% crush the 99%. I am organizing “Let us Occupy Officers Now (LOON)!”.
Fourth, “John” is not where the Democratic Convention will be held.
Fifth, as Stanley’s son I object to the unfair preference given to Robin’s son. A clear case of nepotism and ethnic discrimination!
“Words don’t really have definitions so much as interest and uses.”
How progressive of you, Mr. Webster would not be so pleased.
According to your statement it would not be possible to have rule of law enforced due to the lack of understanding between parties. So it follows that rule of might will dictate the outcome of any and all disagreements.
Does not sound very cordial to me. Now, of course you have to figure out if in fact I disagree with your statement or not because words don’t really have definitions so much as interest and uses…
You think that I don’t even mean
A single word I say.
That’s right Chrissy, I don’t.
It’s only words, and words are all
I have to take your heart away.
Chrissy, say something meaningful about the issues, or take a hike.
–
I think the Republicans are pretty much aware these days of the Lakoffian efforts by the Dems to make every word and every issue mean just what they say it means. OTOH I’m not sure how good they are at countering. You can’t defend. Newt does the right thing, more or less.
ON THE OTHER HAND when I hear Mitt say “We’re going to take this country back”, I worry. Back from what, from whom? Is it not forbidden to say from whom, even if all you mean is “Democrats”, liberals, socialists, communists, community organizers, race hustlers, progressives, pointy-headed MSM types, MSNBC, code pink, Paul Krugman, Ben Bernanke, China, the EPA, public employee unions bankrupting every level of government with absurd retirement benefits, Medicare fraud, mathematically incompetent politicians, etc? Little Chrissy Matthews will say it means from that black Muslim Kenyan communist empty chair Obambus and we all know what game you’re playing – and Mitt won’t have an answer. Will he?
When people talk about words, I recall a letter published in Air and Space magazine in the early 1990′s. Referring to an article in an earlier issue in which the owner of a company that built racing airplanes in the 1920′s was described as a lady who was “drop dead gorgeous”, a woman letter writer complained about that phrase.
And that was all the article said about the woman. It did not describe the shape of her face, the nature of her hair, the curve of her bosum or the shapeliness of her legs.
But it was not the use of the words, or the absurdity of seemingly implying that beauty could be so powerful that it could kill, that was the problem. She clearly objected to the very idea that a woman’s beauty had any relevance to anything. She wanted people to stop referring to female beauty even in such short references. And one suspects very strongly that no one would ever describe the letter writer in any such positive way. Clearly she was saying, “I’m ugly so I do not want to be reminded that there are woman who are beautiful.”
Needless to say, such a stricture would leech so much of the beauty of the English language from any use in which anyone could be offended, which is to say, everything. These PC fanatics want not only to control the language but to make the world a more drab and cheerless place.
All arguments from the Left boil down to “Shut up.”
Newt called it. Matthews is a racist. Full stop.
The proper response to the “niggardly” kerfuffle is to focus on the complainants real problem, ignorance. The student who complained should not be condemned for being wrong but should be condemned for choosing to remain wrong. It most emphatically is the job of the class and the teacher to validate or to reject her feelings insofar as they impact on the experience of others. The job of the school is to cure ignorance. She is engaging in a Taking, that is she is imposing a cost on others.
Now if the market in education was truly free then the complainant would be free to take her business elsewhere if she deemed the venue to be biased or insensitive. If education was paid for by a voucher system then the school could evaluate whether to accommodate her concerns or ask her to seek another provider. Similarly if the market was more open then rent seeking windbags like those on the School Board would have to balance their ignorant grandstanding and bullying with the need to keep and hold good employees.
Can rappers use the word niggardly?
I can see the Democrats calling Governor Romney niggardly if they think it will hurt him among Southern Baptists. “Him and his niggardly budgets!”
Words are wise men’s counters, they do but reckon by them. But they are the money of fools.
PA Cat,
Better not forget that “Vanilla” has become both racially and sexually charged. Ane while I am not yet aware of any sexual innuendo, it is certainly racially perjorative. In Viet Nam, circa 1970, the Bros habitually called the White troops “rabbits” (as in White Rabbit?) I used to respond – “Yeah. my name is Thumper.” So add , Vanilla,white bread, and rabbit to the forbidden list.
@rhhardin: Shed those Wittgensteinian overshoes and join the real world of normal people. Funny little men from Vienna are no longer where it’s at.
There’s always a battle over language where power is concerned. The contemporary liberal media tries to spin all concepts to favor the Left, but all that has done over the last few years is make them less trusted. All the media outlets have lost viewers trust according to a recent Pew poll. But the Pew poll itself is not entirely trustworthy since Pew polls generally have a liberal “house effect” which probably masks the extent of the slide.
Although Orwell’s “1984″ is a powerful depiction of the aims and methods of 20th century socialist states, it over-implifies unruly human nature. No matter how sophisticated the mind games the state plays to beat down the human being, there will always be something resistant to the state coming from the human cogs themselves. Eventually even the O’Brien’s in the state come to distrust it, and then it seizes up. This is one insight that Ayn Rand had in her short novel “Anthem”, which was published in 1938, eleven years before Orwell’s novel. It’s a good idea to read them both!
Maybe it doesn’t have to be said, but to me it makes it worse that the etymologies that are supposed to provide grounds for offense are bogus. “Rule of thumb” stems from a traditional way to measure lengths and estimate heights; it never had anything to do with wife beating. And there was no rule permitting the use of any sort of rod. Feminist “scholars” just made this stuff up.
cult: a forbidden word to explain one’s disingenuous candidacy, prompted by Rick Perry’s stumble and Santorum being a pain. That’s 4 letters, naturally, while only 3 letters can explain Mr. Matthews’ behavior… It’s pretty clear why he keeps badgering Newt.
RAAACIST!!! RACIST!!!! THIS WHOLE BLOG IS RAACIST! YOU USED…THE ENGLISH…LANGUAGE (Cut to me rolling on floor, frothing at mouth [OK not exactly froth, more like beer suds] wailing and gnashing remaining teeth)
Deep breath…start again….RAAACISTS…THE SKY IS FALLING…THE WOLF IS COMING…
/s
ta
Speech codes are the modern day equivalent of blasphemy laws. Chris Matthews is the high priest of something forever rending his robes at the sound of an offensive utterance. It doesn’t matter what you say. It only matters who says it. If Romney or Newt talked about bricks or chewing gum he would immediately see it as a racist slur, because in his view it would have to be a racist slur.
On other hand, Bill Maher or whoever else can say whatever words they want and he will hear nothing but enlightenment, because however hideous the utterance he had judged the speaker blameless in the first place and therefore whatever proceeds from that man’s mouth must necessarily be all sweetness and light.
Matthews first judges the man then he tortures the words to fit his pre-conception of the man. He doesn’t hear with his mind. He hears with his prejudices. And he thinks this is high moral standing, when it is really only bigotry.
But then you could never convince him of that, because he’s defined bigotry and honesty in diametrically different ways. Naturally his definition must prevail. That is of course the classic definition of fascism, but more on that another time.
It’s interesting how the white liberal media now has the authority to use the race-card at will.
I believe that “going Dutch” was one of those terms that emerged due to Americans mistakenly pronouncing “Deutsche,” as in Germans, as “Dutch.” So, really that one gets bonus points for offending TWO different nationalities, awesome!
And what about the word “gypped?” If that didn’t make it onto Robinson’s list, then he is clearly a RACIST!!! /sarc
I can’t help it. I got to the dude with the beard and him talking about spanking. My brain downshifted into Ella Fitzgerld singing “hanky panky”. I don’t know if she ever recorded that. I heard her sing it at the Blues Lounge in DC. Couldn’t find it. So then I went with Mae West but couldn’t find her either. So you are stuck with Madonna, who has made a LOT of money with her weak and limited voice. I would like to hear Spears do Hanky Panky.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROO_B8Wy-Lg&feature=related
Put the bearded one in the front row and start a pool on how long his heart lasts.
IIRC, ONLY the SUPREME Court can define “Fighting words”. That means my civil rights are being violated.
Nothing like a good spanky. It beats a shower at Penn State.
I declare stevesmith the early thread winner. Bravo, sir.
And um, I thought that whole “rule of thumb” story has been thoroughly debunked. But it serves as a nice bludgeon to shame men, so why not keep propagating lies, eh?
13 @Blast From the Past
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWHgUE9AD4s
I broke one of my rules and watched the video. There are a bunch of people I am no longer interested in seeing. Matthews is one of them, along with the Clintons, Maher, eh, most of those who you see on TV.I have heard what they say, I know what they are going to say; they are boring and will never change. But I watched this video and it confirmed my bias but I still regret watching.
But otherwise, double plus good article Richard.
Recently appointed Chief Diversity Officer for my Condominium Association, I compiled a list of forbidden words and phrases and put them to a vote, where they were passed by acclimation.
Mop was out because the cursed word began with M
Which upside down spelled out the cruel word Wop
And using Mick for Michelob was not the thing to do
As several of the boys begged me to shtop
The use of Poleaxe to describe a very heavy blow
Was now a word offensive to the Poles
And Aspic was illegal in the eyes of many folks
While Foster gives offense to Aussie souls
Now Slant must not be used at all, nor anything be Square
Our Chinese neighbors have their inner needs
While Square reminds the rest of us of slurs about the shape
Of heads of we Norwegians and the Swedes
We must not say we Pack our things, it sounds the same as Pak
Our Pakistani neighbors are annoyed
So if you find you’re on the road just take another tack
Or peace and good relations are destroyed
And then of course you’re never Fagged, you’re only merely tired
And plans for Dikes on wetlands must be dropped
And if your children play and laugh they really aren’t Gay
And feeding them those Burghers must be stopped
The meeting was a great success, I made my points quite well
And gathered up my dog, a minor glitch
For many in the crowd protested at my choice of pets
By pointing out she was a handsome Bitch
The problem with labeling words and phrases “racists” is the same one with labeling certain words or phrases blasphemous. New words get derived or invented: Gadzooks! God’s Hooks! God’s Hand’s! The left is has become twonkers. Twonker, one who has sexual relations with male goats.
I posted more than 40 minutes ago, and it failed to appear, at least to this point. I fear the words I used to illustrate the point must have given offense to the Chief Diversity Officer. I hope I haven’t been blacklisted. But I guess I can’t say that either. Or even Mea culpa. Wouldn’t want to offend the Means.
We all know that the meaning of the written word can be manipulated as easily as spoken words. Off topic and as off the wall as Mr Eastwood’s recent performance, in 1957 two “Goon Show” British radio voices named Eccles and Bluebottle discussed in a timely fashion, the power of words that are written on paper.
It made perfect sense to those of us who had seen 14 summers by 1957. For today’s 14 year olds this radio conversation would seem to be from some other galaxy.
Chris Matthews could not have existed in 1957.
Pale face Matthews decides what words are good for blacks, what words are not. Mas’er Matthews decrees to black “children” how they should feel when words are spoken.
Funny thing, most of these free associations of innocuous everyday words to denigrate blacks are done by white liberals.
Of course depicting a black man, Congressman Allen West, punching an old white woman to scare off white voters is not racist as long as the racist white liberal is doing the racist depiction.
Four hours later, I try again.
Recently appointed Chief Diversity Officer for my Condominium Association, I compiled a list of forbidden words and phrases and put them to a vote, where they were passed by acclimation.
Mop was out because the cursed word began with M
Which upside down spelled out the cruel word Wop
And using Mick for Michelob was not the thing to do
As several of the boys begged me to shtop
The use of Poleaxe to describe a very heavy blow
Was now a word offensive to the Poles
And Aspic was illegal in the eyes of many folks
While Foster gives offense to Aussie souls
Now Slant must not be used at all, nor anything be Square
Our Chinese neighbors have their inner needs
While Square reminds the rest of us of slurs about the shape
Of heads of we Norwegians and the Swedes
We must not say we Pack our things, it sounds the same as Pak
Our Pakistani neighbors are annoyed
So if you find you’re on the road just take another tack
Or peace and good relations are destroyed
And then of course you’re never Fagged, you’re only merely tired
And plans for Dikes on wetlands must be dropped
And if your children play and laugh they really aren’t Gay
And feeding them those Burghers must be stopped
The meeting was a great success, I made my points quite well
And gathered up my dog, a minor glitch
For many in the crowd protested at my choice of pets
By pointing out she was a handsome Bitch
I believe it was Jonah Goldberg that said that the real reason it is so hard to have a serious discussion with the Left is that at their core they are not serious people.
They will take mere words and make them the focus of a discussion, thereby depriving the exchange of any real information. And then they will respond to criticism of their use of words by saying they are mere words. They decry the use of what they call “codewords” by the Right but make extensive use of actual codewords on their own.
During the 2000 election I saw them criticize Dick Cheny, who was SECDEF during the very difficult downsizing of the early 1990′s by saying that it was he that cut the military. When it was pointed out to them that the cuts were imposed by a Democrat-controlled Congress, their response was, “Well, you implemented the cuts the Democrats imposed so you must have agreed with them!”
Discussions with such people are pointless. I have had more productive conversations with a Labrador Retriver.
But, Walt @32:
Foster’s DOES give offense to
Aussies and their didgeridoos
mostly for being a beer that’s
like making love in a canoe…
I do not think the agitprop geniuses of the left realize just how badly their fortunes will fare in their idealized world where words have been selectively stripped of meaning and dissenters must need come to the inevitable conclusion that they are of no further utility.
…When there are no longer sufficient words, there is only efficient action.
Reality is not a single-edged sword.
re: “Shut up” – and worse (said the Left and the leftist president) – as this arrogant and sullen employee was being given the measure of his performance by his employer, we-the-people in the form of Mr. E.
Some claim Mr. O doesn’t speak this way – I’ve heard otherwise from “the help” but until the MSM does their job we’ll only have his Chicago past for a record of his abusive language. Not as bad as Ms. C, but Mr. E’s hint at his behavior was only fraction of actual. Certainly his administration and his Dem Congress behaved exactly this way with regard to the laws they wrote and (lied to) narrowly (if that) passed.
Chris ‘Tingles’ at work…I just know there’s a “dog whistle” in there…Somewhere.
#16 Rurik “rabbit” as a pejorative for whites is a step up from the 1968-69 term (at least in the 25th ID) of “chucks”. I wonder if “spades” commonly used for the brothers at the time would be considered offensive today.
Oh by the way Chrissie Matthews is an ignorant, self important di**head. They used to have a bumper sticker in Detroit that said “Will the last one out turn off the lights” It might apply to Chrissie’s 5 viewers.
“…rules are ok, as long as there is someone left to play…”
Nick Gravenites – “Born In Chicago”
3. Langley,
Thank you for that link. Reading the entire entry at that link gave me much mirth, and more than a days worth of antidote to living here.
Trangbang68,
Around Chu Lai and Southern Eye Corps in 69-70, I heard Chuck used occasional as a somewhat dismissive form of Charlie. As for me I believed it was not good form to be dismissive till after DEROS. I find the old language fascinating in its regional dialects.
I believe that Spade originated as jazz and beatnik slang during the 1950s; it is certainly streng verboten today. However, from the moment we saw that photo of Mooch in her garden wielding her shovel, I have thought of her as the Queen Of Spades.
Words mean what the person uttering or writing them intends them to mean when they spoke or wrote them. Misunderstanding does not change what they meant. However to be understood by others then using words in the ways they are defined and according to the rules of grammar helps to get the intended idea across.
Unless you are dealing with the Left who will redefine any and all words you use for their own purposes and declare that their new meaning is not theirs, but is exactly what you intended to say, what you meant. They just know these things and have super dog whistle detection skills.