Category: Political Language
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Honor thy Mother
Our biological mothers bore us into the world of matter; the mother tongue into the realm of objective spirit. Both deserve respect and honor, the latter more so than the former inasmuch as the spirit is higher than the flesh. What the mother tongue receives from the matricidal Left is neglect and abuse and Orwellian…
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Why Women are ‘Over-Represented’ among Realtors
Have you ever wondered why women are 'over-represented' among realtors? It is because they excel men when it comes to conciliation and mediation. I don't mean this as a snarky put-down of the distaff contingent. I mean it as praise. And if females do not take it as praise, are they not assuming the superiority…
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The Leftist as Denier of Distinctions
The 'woker' the leftist, the broader the scope of the denial of distinctions necessary for clear thought and rationally informed action. Here are just some of them: citizen-noncitizen asylum-illegal entry legal immigration-illegal immigration immigration-emigration. This distinction elided by talk of 'migrants.' hate-dissent sex-gender dissenting speech-violence tax-penalty buy back-confiscation et cetera ad nauseam.
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Propaganda
Despite the term's largely pejorative connotation, propaganda is not by definition false or misleading or harmful. Propaganda is anything of a verbal or pictorial nature that is propagated to influence behavior. Propaganda can consist of truths or falsehoods, good advice or bad, exhortation to good behavior or subornation of bad. Anti-smoking and anti-drug messaging are…
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Don’t Surrender to the Left on Language
The Left's destructiveness extends even unto language. The subversion of language is the mother of all subversion. Punch back against the linguistic hijackers. Here's some argumentative ammo from Peter Kreeft's Socratic Logic, 3rd ed., p. 36, n. 1: The use of the traditional inclusive generic pronoun "he" is a decision of language, not of…
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Critical Race Theory Attracts the Uncritical
People are suckers for Critical Race Theory (CRT) because they cannot think critically. A key word in the CRT arsenal is 'equity.' ('Arsenal' is the right word given the Left's weaponization of language.) It is an Unbegriff, an unconcept. It combines something good with something unattainable except by the toleration of grave evils. Let me…
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‘Political’ is not a Dirty Word
Years ago I heard a man on C-Span whose name and the name of whose organization I have forgotten. The man headed an outfit promoting a strict interpretation of the U.S. constitution. Throughout his talk he repeated the remark that his organization was not political, not political, NOT POLITICAL! Nonsense, say I. What the…
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Why Do I Write about Political Topics?
People are increasingly 'siloed into' their positions. I don't write to change the minds of our political enemies. Why do I write, then? First, to arrive at the truth as best I can for my own edification and enjoyment. People like me like to figure things out and understand things. On our good days we theoreticians…
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Could I Pass an Ideological Turing Test?
On 11 January 2017 I wrote a post that begins: Could I present liberal-left ideas in such a way that the reader could not tell that I was not a liberal? Let me take a stab at this with respect to a few 'hot' topics. This won't be easy. I will have to present liberal-left…
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For the Left, the Subject is not the Subject: Why Math is ‘Racist’
It has often been noted that for the Left, the issue is not the issue. David Horowitz: As President Obama’s political mentor, Saul Alinsky, put it in Rules for Radicals: “One acts decisively only in the conviction that all of the angels are on one side and the devils are on the other.” Here is another…
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Merit and ‘Equity’
Those who lack merit too often seek to achieve by political means what they cannot achieve by accomplishing something. Leftists aid and abet them. Equality before the law and equality of opportunity are not enough for leftists: they demand equality of outcome. But this cannot arise naturally due to differences in interests, attitudes, abilities, and…
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“One Man’s Datum is Another Man’s Theory”
Why do I use 'man'? To exclude women? No, to exclude leftists, both men and women. I believe in equality when it comes to the exclusion of the destructive. In the '70s, when it first really got going, gender-inclusive language seemed to many a very good thing indeed. It showed a welcoming attitude to the…
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Conspiracy Theories?
The Language Nazi doesn't much cotton to the loose lingo that leftists love. Hillary spoke of a "vast right wing conspiracy" directed against her husband. Maybe that's where the linguistic mischief started. How can a conspiracy be vast and composed of half the population? A conspiracy is a clandestine agreement among a small group of…