I first noticed that the Democrats had shanghaied control of our language when the phrase “Global Warming” began to disappear. It was replaced almost overnight with ‘Climate Change,’ mostly because we had had several winters where it was, unsurprisingly, cold. Rather than rock their narrative, the Left merely rebranded Global Warming. It was certainly easier than admitting they were wrong. Plus, now anything could be attributed to climate change, be it a tornado in the plains or a hurricane in the gulf. Even good news meteorologically could be painted as bad with this new phrase. Naturally, this twist of our language was reinforced by the mainstream media, which quickly adopts the phrase du jour and adds it to its liberal lexicon.
The Left has seized the English language and is using it as a club to pummel non-conformers. Conservatives allowed this to happen. After all, it seems innocent enough. Who cares what people refer to things as? Why debate something as mundane as the words we use?
We all should be concerned because control of language is still a form of control.
Examples of this lunacy are everywhere. We are told we cannot use the word “gay” because we are actually referring to the broader LGBTQ community, and so we must use that acronym. “White privilege” is another new phrase we are compelled to say, while using the expression, “Okay, Boomer” entitles us to discriminate against what someone says based on his age. Language control is also how violent riots and looting morphed overnight into “peaceful protests.”
If something earns a negative image, the Left can simply create a new phrase and rebrand it. “Social Justice Warriors” became a phrase with many negative associations, so they became “the Woke.” Problem solved!
Mark my words, the negative press that Critical Race Theory has received in the last few months practically guarantees that the Left will start referring to it as something else by election time. It almost feels like there is a secret cabal somewhere that has whiteboards filled with new names and acronyms, just waiting for the right moment to drop them on us like bombs.
If rebranded phrases weren’t enough, along came the ridiculous concept of preferred pronouns. This enabled individuals to command you to use words of their choosing to describe them. Many hopped onto this virtue signaling bandwagon, with corporations now making employees put their pronouns in their email signature blocks. If you didn’t use your pronouns, well, that’s a signal, too … a signal that you are a Conservative.
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And who controls the definitions? Certainly not Conservatives. This system plays to the pompousness of the Left; they love to tell Conservatives that we are ignorant, or that we don’t understand the phrase they are using. They live to demean others, and it’s easy to do when they get to make up words and phrases. It is a form of deflecting — making opponents focus on the definition of something, rather than its impact. We will see a lot of this in the coming 2022 election cycle.
The best part of free speech is that you, as an individual, get to use it as you deem appropriate. Far too often we have allowed the Left to tell us what we can and cannot say. As courteous people, we even made polite efforts to conform — but in reality, we were conceding control of American English to Progressives.
Personally, I don’t care what pronouns, acronyms, phrases, or words Leftists desire me to use. I don’t make a deliberate effort not to use their words; I simply don’t give them the authority to tell me what words I must use. I am under no obligation to let Progressives dictate the words that come out of my mouth or from my keyboard. I will never subscribe to verbal or written censorship whims. Such demands mean remarkably little because we have freedom of speech in America. This may upset some people, but that is acceptable; the Left does not have a right not to be upset.
I think more Conservatives need to take a similar stand, not only with the Progressives but with the mainstream media as well. Make no mistake: this is not a game that the Left is playing. They believe that if they can control the language, they can use it as a club to pummel their opponents. If they determine what can and cannot be said, they are, in essence, able to impose censorship at will. This is not a fight in which we should stoop to their level and start creating our own useless verbal pabulum. Instead, we need to ignore their attempts to wrestle our language from us. Better yet, we need to call them out on it and use the words we deem appropriate. It’s not their language — it is our language.
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