I love the English language with a twofold appreciation, as an
amateur linguist and prose writer. Each avocation heightens one's
awareness of language as such and of one's own language in
particular. This awareness enriches one's life by the beauty of
which the language is capable, when well-used; on the other hand,
one is also more sensitive to its ugliness when ill-used.
One class of irritant results from ignorance: the broken
English of the foreigner and the uneducated native. Another class of irritant
results from deliberate misuse: the linguistic engineering of the
relativist-collectivist Left. To paraphrase George Orwell: "The purpose of PC-speak is
not only to provide a medium of expression of the world-view and
mental habits proper to the devotees of 'inclusiveness', but to
make all other modes of thought impossible." Since the
entertainment-news-education complex is almost entirely
controlled by the relativist-collectivist Left, PC-speak is
insidiously corrupting the language of ordinary people and even
conservatives trying to resist the Left.
The process is not inevitable. It was begun deliberately, by
particular, identifiable, insufferable prigs who sat around
thinking up the whole set of jargon and euphemisms with which to
cloud men's minds. They wrote whole
books of the stuff; periodicals composed style manuals to the
same end. The process can be halted and reversed the same way --
by deliberately yanking the weeds of PC-speak out of the garden
of English, wherever they have already taken root. To this end, I
compile this list of PC neologisms and their plain English
equivalents, with commentary:
- "affirmative action" -- reverse
discrimination or racial preferences
or quotas.
- "African American" -- black.
Now, let me get this straight: emphasizing the blacks'
remote ancestral connection to Africa is supposed to
enhance their self-esteem. Looking at Africa, one mostly
sees famine, pestilence, and people hacking each other to
bits with machetes. Huh?
ERROR
DOES NOT COMPUTE
ABORT, RETRY, FAIL?
- "Afrocentrism" -- black racism.
How ironic, considering that Africans were the ones who
enslaved the blacks' ancestors and sold them to
Europeans.
- "anti-immigrant" -- pro-American.
- "Asian" -- Oriental (unless
one actually does mean to include India and the Middle
East and their inhabitants). At the very least, one
should specify East Asian. Also, it
amuses me to use the quaint old term Chinaman.
- "diversity" -- xenocentrism and
ethnophobia.
- "feminist" -- lesbolshevik, or
perpetually indignant bitch.
- "firefighter" -- fireman. Just
imagine some little firewoman trying to haul you
out of a burning building when you're overcome by
smoke-inhalation.
- "gays" -- homosexuals, perverts, or
sodomites. Though redeeming the word
"gay" is probably a lost cause, we at least
still have the noun form "gaiety" in its
original sense (as opposed to "gayness"); and
perhaps we can avenge the old sense by pejorating the new
one -- as in, "Dude, that is so gay!"
- "gender" -- sex.
Unfortunately, the common use of "sex" as a
short form of "sexual intercourse," instead of
referring to the two sexes, helps push this seemingly
disambiguating usage. One must bear in mind that
"gender" is a grammatical term, meaning only
"type" or "kind," and there are more
genders than masculine and feminine -- which is precisely
why the Language Commissars use it.
- "he or she" -- he (unless the
context makes it unavoidable).
- "the homeless" -- bums.
Incidentally, I've often heard people make the mistake of
calling them "hobos." Now, to quote Edward G.
Robles, Jr.: "a hobo will work and move on, whereas
a tramp will mooch and move on, and a bum will mooch and
hang around."
- "homemaker" -- housewife.
First they made "housewife" seem like a
shameful thing to be, then they made up a euphemism for
it. Does this make sense?
- "homophobia" -- anti-homosexualism.
Here a new term must be coined, because
"homophobia" itself is entirely an invention of
the homosexualists.
- "humankind" -- either mankind
or humanity.
- "inclusiveness" -- xenocentrism and
ethnophobia.
- "Inuit" -- Eskimo.
- "large" -- obese or grossly
fat.
- "Latino" -- Hispanic. Illi
Latini non sunt! Portuguese, Frenchmen, Italians,
etc. have as much (or as little) right to be called
"Latin."
- "letter carrier" -- mailman.
Why use five syllables when two will do?
- "mentally challenged" -- feeble-minded.
This is actually a second-generation euphemism, replacing
"mentally retarded," which was pejorated into
"retard."
- "multiculturalism" -- xenocentrism and
ethnophobia.
- "Native American" -- (American) Indian.
Yes, of course "Indian" is a misnomer, and
invites confusion with real Indians from India. But
anyone born and raised in this country is a native
American. Maybe we should elevate the substandard Injun
-- there doesn't seem to be any reason why it should be
considered derogatory; cf. "Cajun" (< Acadien).
Then, too, somebody once suggested they be called Siberian-Americans,
which I found rather amusing.
- "nativist" -- pro-American.
Savor the irony: "Native Americans" are
supposed to be proud of being such, but actual native
Americans are supposed to be ashamed of it.
- "racism" -- white people (when
the term is used by Anti-Racism Commissars). In PC-speak,
it is assumed that only white people can be racist, and
all white people are presumed to be "racist"
unless they are sufficiently self-abasing or
sanctimonious in their "anti-racist" posturing.
- "rainforest" -- jungle.
- "Roma" -- Gypsy.
- "senior citizens" -- old people.
- "sensitivity" -- Political Correctness.
- "sexism" -- manhood and womanhood.
- "spouse abuser" -- wifebeater.
- "street person" -- bum.
- "transgendered person" -- weird sexual
freak.
- "undocumented immigrant" -- illegal
alien.
- "values" -- virtues or goods
or opinions.
- "wetland" -- swamp.
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