Leftists are fond of summoning the magic of euphemism to make the social problems they create go away.
Like the editors of the Newspeak Dictionary in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, these social engineers define out of existence the atrocities that necessarily grow out of their ideology.
Take Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), who has introduced legislation that would strike “alien” and “illegal alien” from the federal law books and replace them with “foreign national” and “undocumented foreign national.” The lawmaker’s twin brother, Democrat presidential candidate Julian Castro, endorsed the measure.
Rep. Castro says his bill, the proposed “Correcting Alienating Names in Government Act,” or CHANGE Act, is “integral to creating a more welcoming and inclusive environment for incoming and current immigrants living in the United States.”
Castro wants “illegal alien” banished because it (quite properly) stigmatizes behavior –that is, being a foreigner present in the United States without authorization— that is unlawful.
There is a certain logic to this.
The Left has to make the hordes of illegal aliens their various so-called immigration law reforms have unleashed on their fellow Americans over the years seem normal and acceptable. This is also why the Left describes just about everyone touched by the nation’s immigration laws as an “immigrant” – whether they’re illegal aliens or legal permanent residents. Smearing anyone who believes in the rule of law as anti-immigrant over and over again makes people defensive and wears down the opposition. It’s a kind of brainwashing.
Radicals who carry “no human being is illegal” placards at protests and Associated Press reporters agree with Castro that lying to destigmatize unlawful behavior is morally virtuous. The thought police at the AP stylebook now declare that “illegal” should be used only to describe an action “such as living in or immigrating to a country illegally.”
They also give a thumbs-down to “illegal alien” and “undocumented,” which itself is already a euphemism. USA Today and other media outlets followed suit. Then-California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) jumped on the bandwagon in 2015 by signing legislation excising “alien” from the state’s labor code.
“Words matter,” Castro said in a press release.
“It’s vital that we respect the dignity of immigrants fleeing violence and prosecution in our language. The words ‘alien’ and ‘illegal alien’ work to demonize and dehumanize the migrant community. They have no place in our government’s description of human beings. Immigrants come to our borders in good faith and work hard for the opportunity to achieve a better life for themselves and their family. Eliminating this language from government expression puts us one step closer to preserving their dignity and ensuring their safety.”
And it makes illegals and their enablers feel good about breaking the law, which is largely the point of the exercise.
Well, that, and it helps to create pressure to get “comprehensive immigration reform,” a euphemism for immigration amnesty, through Congress.
President Donald Trump uses the words and phrases the Left hates because they’re accurate, his base loves them, and leftists hate them. All conservatives and right-thinking patriots should do the same.
Although the likelihood of Rep. Castro’s legislation making it all the way across Pennsylvania Avenue to President Trump’s desk is somewhere between slim and none, federal lawmakers do occasionally banish unfashionable words from the statute books.
Congress banned the perfectly good word “lunatic” in federal legislation in 2012 because it was deemed mean. In 2010 our elected representatives banned “mental retardation,” replacing it with “intellectual disability” in federal laws. And they’ll do it again when other useful words are no longer fashionable.
The feces-covered leftist hell known as San Francisco is getting rid of its crime problem by introducing new vocabulary.
The city’s board of supervisors has decided that “convicted felons” will now be called “justice-involved individuals.” Of course, as Tucker Carlson points out, calling these people “justice-involved individuals” also obliterates the distinction between the felons and their victims who could just as easily be described by the same term.
“So, in other words, victim and criminal are now morally indistinguishable,” Carlson says. “That’s on purpose. This is woke equality.”
San Francisco has also abolished “juvenile delinquents,” replacing them with “young people impacted by the juvenile justice system,” as if the system –as opposed to the young person— actually committed the crime. This makes sense because the Left really does believe criminals are the real victims in society.
The city also calls drug addicts “people with the history of substance use,” instead of “substance abusers” in order to eliminate the stigma associated with illegal drug consumption.
“‘Use,’ not ‘abuse.’ Get it? Heroin addicts are now the same as insulin-dependent diabetics; both use ‘substances.’ You can’t call one better than the other. They’re both exactly the same,” says Carlson.
The Left, with its despotic domination of the news media, academia, and entertainment, has the power to do all of this, but that doesn’t mean we have to go along with it.
This article by Matthew Vadum appeared August 28, 2019, at FrontPageMag.