Here Come the Speech Police
Recently, I ran across a piece in The Philadelphia Inquirer that lays out four racist words and phrases that should be banished from the English language. It begins like this:
“Editor’s note: Please be aware offensive terms are repeated here solely for the purpose of identifying and analyzing them honestly. These terms may upset some readers.”
Steel yourself, brave reader, here they are:
- Peanut gallery.
- Eenie meenie miney moe.
- Gyp.
- No can do.
The same grammarian who authored the piece had previously confronted the “deeply racist connotation” of the word “thug,” noting that President Donald Trump “wasn’t the least bit bashful” when calling Minneapolis rioters “thugs” in a tweet, despite the word’s obvious bigoted history.
In 2015, President Barack Obama referred to Baltimore rioters as “thugs” as well. He likely did so because “thug”—defined as a “violent person, especially a criminal”—is a good way to describe rioters.
It’s true that not everyone in a riot engages in wanton violent criminality. Some participants are merely “looters”—defined as “people who steal goods during a riot.” That word is also allegedly imbued with racist conations, according to the executive editor of the Los Angeles Times and others.
Attempting to dictate what words we use is another way to exert power over how we think.
Few people, rightly, would have a problem with referring to the Charlottesville Nazis as “thugs.” Only the “protester” who tears down a Ulysses S. Grant statue or participates in an Antifa riot is spared the indignity of being properly defined.
The recent assaults on the English language have consisted largely of euphemisms and pseudoscientific gibberish meant to obscure objective truths—“cisgender,” “heteronormativity” and so on. Now, we’re at the stage of the revolution where completely inoffensive and serviceable words are branded problematic.
CNN, for instance, recently pulled together its own list of words and phrases with racist connotations that have helped bolster systemic racism in America.
Unsuspecting citizens, the piece explains, may not even be aware they are engaging in this linguistic bigotry, because most words are “so entrenched that Americans don’t think twice about using them. But some of these terms are directly rooted in the nation’s history with chattel slavery. Others now evoke racist notions about Black people.”
CNN tells us the term “peanut gallery”—as in “please, no comment from the peanut gallery”—is racist because it harkens back to the days when poor and black Americans were relegated to back sections of theaters.
Now, I hate to be pedantic, but the “peanut gallery” isn’t “directly rooted” in the nation’s history of “chattel slavery.” As CNN’s own double-bylined story points out, the cliche wasn’t used until after the Civil War. For that matter, few of the words and phrases that CNN alleges are problematic are rooted, even in the most tenuous sense, in the transatlantic slave trade.
Not even the word “slavery,” which is a concept as old as humankind, is in any way uniquely American. Yet, last week, Twitter announced that it was dropping “master” and “slave” from its coding, to create a “more inclusive programming language.”
Only in this stifling intellectual environment is striking commonly used words considered “inclusive.” Other tech companies are now “confronting” their use of these innocuous words to atone for their imaginary crimes.
We should feel no guilt using the word “master.” Her performance was masterful. She mastered her instrument. The score was a masterpiece. The composer was a mastermind.
Even CNN concedes that “while it’s unclear whether the term is rooted in American slavery on plantations, it evokes that history.”
It’s not unclear, at all. The etymology of the word “master” is from the Old English and rooted in the Latin “magister,” which means “chief, director, teacher, or boss.” “Master’s” degrees were first given to university teachers in the 14th century in Europe.
Until a few months ago, the “master bedroom” evoked visions of the larger bedrooms, and the Masters' Tournament evoked images of golfing legends like Tiger Woods, winner of four titles.
Simply because the Nazis used the word “master” in their pseudoscientific racial theories—not in the 1840s, but in the 1940s—doesn’t mean I am offended by the postmaster general. We’re grown-ups here, and we can comprehend context.
Or we used to be.
Honestly, I’m disappointed that CNN missed the commonly used “blackmail” —a word that appears in 439 stories on its website. The phrase was first used to describe protection money extracted by mid-16th-century Scottish chieftains. Maybe it’s the Scots who should be offended.
In and of itself, depriving Americans of “eenie meenie miney moe”—a phrase with an opaque and complicated history—isn’t going to hurt anyone. Allowing ideological grievance-mongers to decide what words we’re allowed to use, on the other hand … well, no can do.
“If thoughts can corrupt language, language can also corrupt thoughts,” George Orwell famously wrote. Every time some new correct-speak emerges, CNN and all the media will participate in browbeating us into subservience.
Progressive pundits will laugh off concerns about the Orwellian slippery slope. If we allow the seemingly innocuous attempts to control words and thoughts go uncontested, more-nefarious control will be a lot easier in the future.
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While the United States has much to thank Great Britain for, including our common law system and our preference for coffee over tea, when it comes to modern politics the ideals of certain segments of the British Parliament have been in direct conflict with the foundational ideals of America. Especially when it comes to free speech issues.
Such is the case with Parliament member Lucy Powell’s proposal to use government force to ban private online group discussions. According to Powell, private online groups “locks out the police, intelligence services and charities that could otherwise engage with the groups and correct disinformation.” Powell asserts that her proposed legislation is intended to combat hate, disinformation, and criminal activity. Worthy goals, no doubt. But at what cost?
Thankfully nothing like that could ever happen in the United States. Right?
Not so fast.
California is currently set to be the first state in the U.S. to propose regulating online speech. The California Assembly and Senate recently approved S.B. 1424, the “Internet: social media: advisory group” act, which now only awaits the signature of Governor Brown to become law. The bill reads, in part:
“The Attorney General shall, subject to the limitations of subdivision (d), establish an advisory group consisting of at least one member of the Department of Justice, Internet-based social media providers, civil liberties advocates, and First Amendment scholars, to do both of the following:
(a) Study the problem of the spread of false information through Internet-based social media platforms.
(b) Draft a model strategic plan for Internet-based social media platforms to use to mitigate the spread of false information through their platforms.”
Somewhere George Orwell is shaking his head.
Government regulation of speech is a slippery slope. Once a step is taken toward government deciding what is “true” or “false” or what views are “worthwhile” and worthy of being shared, it is only a matter of time until politicians with ideological agendas decide to attempt to elevate their own views, to the detriment of individual rights and democracy. The cost of our own freedom of speech depends on a tolerance of the ideas and speech of others. We ourselves are the best judges of the merits of differing views, not the government. The last thing we need is Sacramento politicians deciding where we can speak and what we can say.
According to John Adams, “None of the means of information are more sacred, or have been cherished with more tenderness and care by the settlers of America, than the press. Care has been taken that the art of printing should be encouraged, and that it should be easy and cheap and safe for any person to communicate his thoughts to the public.” In the age of social media we all have a part to play in the free exchange of ideas. And we should not need politicians’ permission to do so.
UPDATE: Gov. Brown vetoed the online speech bill yesterday, although apparently the CA Senate is “considering” that veto (for an override, presumably). More updates to come.
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