It is well-established that when a mind lacks the linguistic tools to conceive of certain thoughts, those thoughts become impossible to conceive. This is why tight control of the language was so central to Big Brother’s control of the populace in “1984,” and, it seems clear, why current aspiring power-mongers on the Left are increasingly employing censorship and linguistic manipulation to herd a lazy, badly-educated and apathetic public into virtual pens where they can be controlled and relied upon to support their betters.
In the last couple of weeks we learned that woke-infested publishers have been stealth editing the works of Roald Dahl and Ian Fleming; this week, “Goosebumps” author R.L. Stine announced that his popular series has been similarly edited “for sensitive readers” without his consent. Who knows what other classic books are having their original authors’ words, ideas and messages altered by anonymous political correctness hacks in the pursuit of “social justice”?
Now comes the news (via The Spectator) that a prime online news source and political analysis site is also in the business of restricting language. Here is a list of “non-inclusive words” that Politico’s reporters have been instructed to avoid using:
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- Man-made
- Mankind
- Manhunt
- Crack the whip: Unacceptable because of origins in slavery
- Waiter or waitress: Server should be used instead
- Biological gender, biological sex, biological woman, biological female, biological man, or biological male
- Illegal immigrant or illegal alien
- Cake walk: “Originated during slavery” and thus perpetuates “racist motifs”
- In reference to illegal migration: onslaught, tidal wave, flood, inundation, surge, invasion, army, march, sneak and stealth
- Anchor baby
- Chain migration: This is a term used by “immigration hard-liners”
- Peanut gallery: “The cheapest seats often occupied by Black people and people with low incomes”
- Third-world countries: Too “derogatory”
The guide also warned that reporters should not say that a transgender person “identifies as” a certain gender, or describe the current situation at the border as a “crisis,” because “while the sharp increase in the arrival of unaccompanied minors is a problem for border officials, a political challenge for the Biden administration and a dire situation for many migrants who make the journey, it does not fit the dictionary definition of a crisis.” It also cautioned reporters against portraying migrants as a “negative, harmful influence.”
What can anyone do to stop this? I can put Politico on the rapidly growing Ethics Alarms boycott list, but then I can’t ethically audit Politico. Here comes Geena again,
…but worrying about what’s happening isn’t the same as addressing the problem.
Ethics Alarms 
The style book goes on to say, “Instead of ‘third world countries,’ the term ‘shithole’ should be used.”
Clearly, the sheep are already over-running editorial offices. These recent college graduates are in control.
The scary part is these whipper snappers are in control. The inmates are running the asylum. The adults have been run out of the room or tied up and gagged or are proceeding with guns held at their respective heads. I think the cultural revolution has succeeded. They’ve certainly taken control of the academy and the media. And probably the professions. Corporate management is going down as we speak. It may already be gone.
Oh, it’s a wrap.
The time to stop or reverse the Cultural Revolution has come and gone. Hats off to Herbert Marcuse, his long march through the institutions has been a smashing success (though I’m not sure a nation of rage-addled subliterate adult children was his idea of “socialist liberation”, but maybe).
My wife works both in NYC publishing and LA Hollywood projects, and what we think of as Social Justice is the official belief system of everyone educated and ambitious under say age 30. Some are true believers who consider the dogma sacred, some just mouth the shibboleths to go along to get along, but just like in Soviet Russia, it’s the same either way: the ideology is entrenched and powerful, it is profitable plus guarded by a Praetorian cadre of zealots just hoping to deliver some justice to a dissenter, the only way to get ahead is to publicly parrot it, and whoever disagrees is banished.
My point being that if the next generation of cultural and intellectual leaders are baptized in this newest One True Faith, it will only be further entrenched going forward, and these new gods are just getting comfortable and settling into their reign.
Once American academia welcomed the Trojan Horse called Critical Studies inside our gates, the rest was inevitable.
Outstanding post!!!
And speaking of sheep: https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-war-woke-most-americans-100008176.html
79 percent of Democrats think “woke” is a good thing.
“Originated during slavery”
If that’s the criterion, then that would include the entirety of the English language, not to mention French, Spanish, Latin, Greek, Esperanto, Italian, and every other language and every word that has ever been invented.
Clearly they don’t realize that slavery has been around since homo sapiens became a species — and is still around today. Definitely time for that Gene Wilder clip: