Category: Language Matters
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Conservative Resistance on the Language Front
One form conservative resistance takes is insistence on one's right to use standard English and oppose innovations. But it ought to be a tolerant resistance, one that permits the politically correct to speak and write as they wish so along that do not try to impose their foolishness upon us. Related: Political Correctness and Gender-Neutral…
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Phrase of the Day: ‘Infra Dig’
I just came across the following sentence in Charles R. Kesler's Claremont Review of Books article, Thinking about Trump: It is not entirely clear whether his liberal and conservative critics disapprove of Trump because he violates moral law or because he is infra dig. The 'infra dig' threw me for a moment until I realized…
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The Fantasy of Addiction
As long as this blog has been online, 14 years now, I have railed against the misuse of the the word 'addiction.' Thanks to Dave Lull, I am pleased to see that Peter Hitchens takes a similar line in a First Things article. Excerpt: The chief difficulty with the word “addiction” is the idea that…
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The Politicization of the FBI
Joseph E. diGenova: Over the past year, facts have emerged that suggest there was a plot by high-ranking FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) officials in the Obama administration, acting under color of law, to exonerate Hillary Clinton of federal crimes and then, if she lost the election, to frame Donald Trump and his campaign…
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The Ideology of Illegal Immigration
An outstanding column by VDH. Excerpts: The entire vocabulary of illegal immigration has become Orwellian. Once descriptive nouns and adjectives such as “alien” and “illegal” have melted into “undocumented” and “immigrant” and then into just “migrant,” ostensibly to mask the reality of both legal status and the fact that migrants go in one direction —…
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Language Rant
It is time again for another language rant. The visage of Jeff Dunham's 'Walter' alerts you to what's coming in case you cannot stomach this sort of thing. 1) If you know English, you know that the correct response to 'thank you' is 'you're welcome,' not 'thank you.' So why does almost every guest on…
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For a ‘Liberal,’ Gun Control = Gun Confiscation
Suppose there occurs some horrendous incident of roadway carnage. Nobody says, 'We need traffic laws.' Nobody competent in English says that because it conversationally implies that there are no traffic laws. What a person might sensibly say is that we need additional traffic laws, for example, laws outlawing texting while driving. So why do liberals…
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Will the ‘Collusionistas’ Now Apologize to Donald Trump?
Fat chance. Being a leftist means never having to say you're sorry. Did the Left ever apologize for its support of 'Uncle Joe' Stalin? Did they ever admit that the Rosenbergs were, in 'fifties parlance, 'atomic spies' for the Soviet Union? My astute readers are equipped to supply further examples. The Mueller indictment finds no…
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Fake News: 18 School Shootings Since January 1, 2018. The Importance of Definition
The question of how many school shootings have occurred in a given place over a given period of time is an empirical question. But to answer the empirical question, one must first have answered a logically prior question, which is non-empirical. This is the conceptual question as to the definition of 'school shooting.' What counts…
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Of Black Holes and Political Correctness: If You Take Offense, Is that My Fault?
Suppose a white person uses the phrase 'black hole' in the presence of a black person either in its literal cosmological meaning or in some objectively inoffensive metaphorical sense, and the black person takes offense and complains that the phrase is 'racially insensitive.' Actual case here. Compare that with a case in which a white person…
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‘Anglo-American’ a ‘Dog Whistle’?
Charles C. W. Cooke patiently explains why it isn't and why it is "moronic" for people such as U. S. Senator Brian Schatz to think so. But are such people stupid and/or uniformed? Now some are stupid and some are uninformed. But a significant number know what they are doing. A better label for them…
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Use, Mention, ‘Quotation’ Marks, and Political Correctness
The title of a recent Weekly Standard article reads: Professor Uses 'N-Word,' Student Shouts 'F-You,' 'Free Speech' Class Canceled at Princeton. I would write it like this: Professor mentions N-word [no inverted commas], Student Shouts 'F-You,' [correct use of inverted commas for quotation], 'Free Speech' Class Cancelled at Princeton [correct use of inverted commas as sneer…
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Can a Coin Toss be Racist?
Why not? If everything is racist, then so is a coin toss. On the other hand, if everything is racist, then nothing is racist in any useful sense of 'racist.' Horribile dictu, there is nothing so stupid that some race-baiting leftist won't say it. I have a whole category on contrast arguments. Said category is…
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Democrats Undermine the Foundations of Rational Discourse
Rational discourse requires observance of a few simple procedural rules. One of the most basic is to use words and phrases in their commonly accepted senses and to refrain from distorting them for partisan purposes. Take 'chain migration.' According to Wikipedia, a usually reliable source, Chain migration is a term used by demographers since the 1960s[1] to…
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“But that’s not Who We are!”
Well, who are we then? That piece of liberal misdirection and obfuscation, the vacuous phrase, 'Who we are,' is in need of sober critique. Paul Gottfried provides it. Here is a chunk of his text: It seems statements can only contradict “who we are” if they’re expressed past the point in time that the media…