{"id":6193,"date":"2023-03-09T09:06:23","date_gmt":"2023-03-09T14:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=6193"},"modified":"2023-07-13T11:24:49","modified_gmt":"2023-07-13T15:24:49","slug":"control-the-language-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2023\/03\/09\/control-the-language-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Control the Language (Part Two)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is the second in a series about words we use daily.  As George Orwell said:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.  A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation even among people who should and do know better.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

America\u2019s language is just as divided as its politics.\u00a0\u00a0Words that once had \u201cclear meaning\u201d, now mean totally different things to different people.\u00a0\u00a0It depends what their source of information is, who they listen to, and what they believe.\u00a0\u00a0There have already been essays on \u201cOur America\u201d dealing with some of these \u201clanguage\u201d differences in the past (see the list below).\u00a0\u00a0But it\u2019s time to write an \u201cindex\u201d of terms, what meanings they have, and how they divide us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cancel<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

All sides of America\u2019s current political life feel that \u201cthey\u201d are being cancelled.  That term was originally used to describe what happened to minorities and women in public settings.  White men spoke and were taken seriously, but when women or minorities spoke, they were ignored (or cancelled).  But the use of the term has evolved into a more direct societal action.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today when someone commits a \u201csin\u201d, then they are \u201ccancelled\u201d from society.\u00a0\u00a0That simplest example is two-time Oscar Award winning actor, Kevin Spacey.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Spacey is accused of more than fifteen acts of sexual misconduct, including assaulting a fourteen year old boy.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0He continues to have legal issues, and his actions have deleted him from films and television, even in re-runs.\u00a0\u00a0From the top of his profession \u2013 he was (rightfully) cancelled.\u00a0\u00a0Bill Cosby has suffered much the same fate.\u00a0\u00a0Thirty years ago, when Michael Jackson was accused of similar behavior \u2013 the \u201csins\u201d were swept away, and we still listen and dance to his music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the pejorative sense, right-wing politicians claimed they have been \u201ccancelled\u201d by the \u201cwoke\u201d (see yesterday\u2019s essay) media because of their political stands.\u00a0\u00a0They are \u201cvictims\u201d of \u201ccancel\u201d culture \u2013 but their actions show they are trying to \u201ccancel\u201d their opponents.\u00a0\u00a0From Florida\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Say Gay\u201d Law, to Ohio\u2019s pending Education Act to emasculate the State Board of Education, the right, claiming cancellation \u201cvictimhood\u201d, are actually the master cancellers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Labels<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When did China become \u201cthe Chinese Communist Party\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0From Tik-Tok to the manmade islands of the Sea of China, what used to be a \u201cChina\u201d issue, are now issues of the \u201cChinese Communist Party\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0And it\u2019s an ecumenical term, with both Democrats and Republicans using it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We aren\u2019t stupid.  We know that China is run by the Chinese Communist Party, and has been since Mao Zedong in 1949.  And we know that the nation of Taiwan (we don\u2019t call them Nationalist China anymore) are Chinese too.  So why the emphasis on the Communist Party label?  Does it somehow make a difference what you call the second biggest national economy in the world? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United States made it an unspoken national goal to \u201cconquer the world\u201d, not with force of arms, but through capitalism.\u00a0\u00a0Our products are ubiquitous, from IPhones to Big Macs. US companies; Apple, Ford, General Motors, Gap, Starbucks, Coke and Pepsi are all heavily invested in China.\u00a0\u00a0The American dollar is the world\u2019s standard currency; the benchmark of financial commonality.\u00a0\u00a0The fact that the biggest names in capitalism, from Apple to GM, are in a nation run by the Communist Party, should be a source of US pride.\u00a0Communism needs our capital, and our capitalism.\u00a0\u00a0Marx, Lenin, and Mao are spinning in their graves; \u201cCorporations of the world Unite!!\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we don\u2019t need the conceit of calling out that Communists run China all the time; in fact, it makes us look stupid.   We know it, and so does the rest of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democrat<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

And speaking of labels; it\u2019s amazing to hear all those Ivy League educated right-wing leaders, from Cruz to DeSantis to Hawley and Hailey; calling their opposition party the \u201cDemocrat\u201d Party.  They sound uneducated \u2013 like they somehow missed the day in Senior government when they talked about the Democratic and Republican Parties.  It\u2019s a not-so-subtle insult:  somehow \u201cDemocrat\u201d sounds meaner and crueler and stupider than Democratic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just to be clear, I am a Democrat, and that makes me a member of the Democratic Party.  They are Republicans, and that makes them members of the Republican Party.  Using insulting terms,  just sounds silly:  sticks and stones, fifth graders down the hallway kind of silly. And if their goal is to irritate Democrats, sure, that does work. But frankly, their threats to our rights are so great, this seems petty.  There\u2019s plenty of real insults to democracy, and the Constitution to deal with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s a matter of false empowerment.\u00a0\u00a0Years ago, my track team from Watkins High School ran against a neighboring school.\u00a0\u00a0The coach there refused to call our team and school \u201cWatkins\u201d on the public address system, instead using the name of our school district, \u201cSouthwest Licking\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0He was trying to alter the result by \u201cgetting in our heads\u201d. His team could never beat Watkins, but maybe they could beat Southwest Licking.\u00a0\u00a0It didn\u2019t work, and it gave me more \u201cammunition\u201d to fire up my Watkins team.\u00a0\u00a0We won, and here forty years later, it still fires me up.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So call my party the \u201cDemocrat Party\u201d if you have to.  It makes you sound stupid, and it gives me one more reason to work (or write) harder!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essays on Language<\/h4>\n\n\n\n