The Left's politicization of language

[I am Groot]

Social Justice. Sounds like a reasonable concept, doesn't it? Of course, that depends on what kind of interpretation you put on it. Even the word 'justice' itself can be twisted, if you're of that kind of mindset. What is 'justice' to the Left? Generally, it means everyone gets the same outcomes, regardless of input. This is an outgrowth of the Left's long flirtation and broken-off love affair with Communism. For if the state owns all then all are equally wealthy. No one has more than anyone else. Regardless of effort, skill or talent.

The Left applies this to its most recent love affair, which is with identity politics. All groups must be equal in all things, with white people being the base group. Any group that performs less well than whites are not to be seen as inferior, or making different choices due to different preferences and cultural beliefs, but as victims of white oppression. And thus it is the state's business to elevate that group to the point they are equal to whites. This ignores Asians, who generally perform better. Asians do not exist. They are a fantasy race that should never be considered in such efforts. The Left insists that it is the state's business to intervene if the number of men making widgets is noticeably higher than the number of women. It does not, however, care if the number of women making widgets is considerably higher than the number of men.

The same consideration is given to various racial groups. The only requirement for social justice is that white people must not perform better than any other group. And since White people earn more than Black people the Left invented the idea of a great, amorphous systemic issue they termed 'systemic racism'. It's the cause of all inferior progress by Black people, you see. No, there's no actual evidence other than statistical superiority in some things by white people. But that will do. The Left seldom requires much in the way of evidence to solidify their beliefs in this or that faddish concept.

Of course, the left has twisted other words of late. Like the word 'hate'. They adopted it about ten or fifteen years ago and have since embraced it as their favorite word. Now it used to be you could be prejudiced or bigoted - words well-defined in the dictionary, but no longer used. The Left made 'racism' their default word because it has a more sinister original definition and can be more readily hurled at their enemies (anyone NOT Left). But even racism wasn't enough as the number of groups the Left identified as requiring their protection grew. It doesn't really work for Muslims, for example, or Trans, or the disabled. So the Left decided to switch to "hate" instead. 

There can no longer be any prejudice or suspicion or doubt about any group. Now all that is gathered together under the term 'hate'. This makes it easier to craft rules and laws against it, like the Liberals' new online hate bill that will ban the expression of doubt or disbelief about anything regarding transgenderism (even though two thirds of Canadians have doubts about elements of the transgender activist demands). Opposing these demands will no longer be permitted. Just as opposing gay marriage, immigration, or open border can be defined as hate and allow for the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal to investigate you and perhaps bankrupt you with enormous fines.

It doesn't take much to qualify as 'hate', either. One joke will do it. One offhand comment. Hiring the wrong person. Getting into an argument with the wrong person. Disagreeing with government policy. Even disagreeing with government policy that is deliberately crafted to be racist is defined as hate! 

But that's all part of how the Left changes language, then insists that anyone not changing with them is immoral and must be punished. The word 'retarded' became essentially forbidden and punishable as the Left switched to 'disabled'. Now that's no longer allowed as they've settled on 'differently abled'. You are hectored and lectured for saying 'illegal alien' and told to use 'undocumented alien' instead. You can't complain about the homeless. Now they're 'unhoused'. 

And once the Left abandons a word it becomes forbidden. Punishable by as much as they can get away with in a still-democratic society. They alone, of course, are the arbiters of what the word means. And that can change over time.

Edited March 14 by I am Groot

[Michael Hardner]

Well nobody has monopoly on language, though many a Chud groomer will ideology.

 

 😅

[Zeitgeist]

Well the left today are the masters of rhetoric and sophistry.  Tell a convincing story of oppression, change the definitions of words, or simply use words that mean the same thing but are new and therefore don’t carry the same stigma or baggage.  It’s a game of outrunning careful analysis and facts.  I’d go as far as saying that, at its worst, the radical left wants to deny facts, rewrite history, make all interpretations of inequality of outcomes about a Marxist oppressor-oppressed binary, and seek forms of theft and suppression of merit to make everyone equal.  It actually gets worse: Facts are labeled offensive. Certain groups are favoured (in the name of de-centering certain groups), and the identities of individuals are reduced to superficial group identities, which become all that matter about a person: black, white, gay, trans, settler, Indigenous, etc.

There’s no room for individuals in the cultural revolution. You only matter insofar as you advance the revolutionary agenda of the collective, which is to remake the world in the twisted image of the vanguard ideologues.  Sadly, all major organizations, institutions, and governments in Canada are under the influence of these ideologues, even so-called conservative ones.  Policies in hiring and admissions reflect these values, which are anti-Canada, as they have defined the nation state as settler colonial, racist, patriarchal, and genocidal.  Not convinced?  Talk to your equity department.

Edited March 14 by Zeitgeist

[Moonlight Graham]

RIP the dictionary definition of racism.

[Zeitgeist]

At least one US state gets it:

https://prismreports.org/2024/03/13/florida-universities-eliminate-dei-positions/

 

 

[I am Groot]

7 hours ago, Michael Hardner said:

Well nobody has monopoly on language, though many a Chud groomer will ideology.

 

 😅

Where does the mainstream come from? It comes from the major media, from academia, politics, artists. And these are the industries/areas where those who call themselves progressive seem to be most heavily found and conservatives are comparatively rare. So the people who call themselves progress can, indeed monopolize aspects of language, and make it all-but illegal and sometimes even illegal for people to use the wrong kinds of language.

[I am Groot]

5 hours ago, Moonlight Graham said:

RIP the dictionary definition of racism.

Most of what people call racism today isn't.  Racism is the tiki torch people who think that white people are a superior race. I.e., it's in our DNA. Almost no one believes that anymore.

Prejudice means to pre-judge. As an example, a store clerk who watches a black customer much more carefully than a white customer is exhibiting prejudice. They are pre-judging this person based on what they know or think they know about black people. BTW, the clerk might be black themselves, or brown or anything else.

Bigotry is negative assumptions largely made out of ignorance. They have an opinion about some group of people and can't be convinced out of it, at least not easily. The prejudiced clerk might actually be acting out of knowledge that the majority of shoplifters are black (for example) or that they're disproportionately likely to be black. In New York in the 1980s when crime was particularly nasty you couldn't get a cab in black areas, and black men could not get picked up by cabs, despite the majority of cab drivers being black. Most of the armed robberies were being committed by black men (still true today). So they didn't want to take the chance. 

Today, the word 'racism' has displaced them, and is used for any sign that a person even notices another person's skin colour. Or if a person tells an ethnic joke. Or makes an innocent, honest assumption about something like asking a person with a foreign sounding name where they come from.

Edited March 14 by I am Groot

[WestCanMan]

23 hours ago, Michael Hardner said:

Well nobody has monopoly on language, though many a Chud groomer will ideology.

Still, it wouldn't hurt if you learned one 🤣

[Michael Hardner]

7 minutes ago, WestCanMan said:

Still, it wouldn't hurt if you learned one 🤣

I'm a liberal conservative.  This is a sound approach to the political economy and moral sphere that gave us the most prosperity and general happiness in history.  

[WestCanMan]

23 hours ago, Zeitgeist said:

 I’d go as far as saying that, at its worst, the radical left wants to deny facts, rewrite history,

There's a lot of evil and malice in their 'rewriting of history'.

Pretending that white people were the only slavers ever and we love it when cops kill n----s, and that we were cheering on the rape and mass-murder of native children doesn't seem to have the most altruistic of intentions. 

At their very best leftists are worse than mere race hustlers and race baiters, because those terms would imply that they're only taking advantage of things that are really happening. Leftists are actually hard at work manufacturing false crises for their own "gain", not just exploiting ones that already exist.

The BS stories of "the bones of 205 children", and gentle giants shot in police drive-bys or "racistly knelt to death" were false, and carefully created and cultivated to create division and hatred. 

It's working alright. I do hate me some leftists, with a passion. 

[WestCanMan]

9 minutes ago, Michael Hardner said:

I'm a liberal conservative. 

Ooooh, the truth is just kinda leaking out of you now, like air hissing from a tire. 

You better put a lid on all that honesty or soon you'll be saying: "I'm a liberal with very conservative views about how much freedom the peons should have, and I enjoy a bit of leftist goose-stepping once in a while."

[Michael Hardner]

19 minutes ago, WestCanMan said:

1. Ooooh, the truth is just kinda leaking out of you now, like air hissing from a tire. 

2. You better put a lid on all that honesty or soon you'll be saying: "I'm a liberal with very conservative views about how much freedom the peons should have, and I enjoy a bit of leftist goose-stepping once in a while."

1. How so ?
2. I don't speak goose.

[PIK]

Who gave the LGBTQ the right to hijack and politicize the word " rainbow"?

[Zeitgeist]

1 hour ago, WestCanMan said:

There's a lot of evil and malice in their 'rewriting of history'.

Pretending that white people were the only slavers ever and we love it when cops kill n----s, and that we were cheering on the rape and mass-murder of native children doesn't seem to have the most altruistic of intentions. 

At their very best leftists are worse than mere race hustlers and race baiters, because those terms would imply that they're only taking advantage of things that are really happening. Leftists are actually hard at work manufacturing false crises for their own "gain", not just exploiting ones that already exist.

The BS stories of "the bones of 205 children", and gentle giants shot in police drive-bys or "racistly knelt to death" were false, and carefully created and cultivated to create division and hatred. 

It's working alright. I do hate me some leftists, with a passion. 

Slavery is awful and we’re lucky not to have had much of it in Canadian colonial history.  A good book to read on the subject is The Book of Negroes.  The worst of it for Canada was in Nova Scotia, but even there it was relatively small in numbers and ended well before slavery ended in the US.  The rest of colonial Canada didn’t allow it, and that’s pre-Confederation.  There would’ve been remnants of indentured servants and slaves but it’s close to zero for slaves, apart from Indigenous on the West Coast who kept slaves for thousands of years.

We know of the slave trade in Africa and the Caribbean and that colonial powers practiced it along with many parts of Africa.  There’s a legacy but barely any in settler Canada.  It’s just not an issue for blacks living in Canada today.

The Indigenous stuff is messier in Canada, but the sad truth is that it’s messier because Canadians tried to solve it through literacy and the Indian Act, which of course didn’t work well, but the Americans handled it far more brutally, through bounties and wars and slaughter, yet interestingly, you don’t see nearly as much handwringing in the US as in Canada over Indigenous affairs, where the settlers “won”, perhaps because we tried harder to preserve cultures and make peace?

And that’s the irony of living in one of the most peaceful and successful countries: The more you solve problems, the more problems people seem to find and the more detailed and frivolous the demands become.  It’s reached a point where we’re becoming dysfunctional and self-destructive because of guilt and shame.  It’s unhealthy. Meanwhile I think slavery still exists in parts of Africa, or it did until recently.

It reminds me of the argument against reporting on the abuse of Indigenous children to CAS.  If people can argue that they’ve been victimized, somehow that makes some people feel entitled to victimize others.  “Intergenerational trauma” becomes the excuse for child abuse, alcoholism, etc.  Well some people may buy that excuse but I don’t, not really.  The victim mindset is unhealthy and removes personal responsibility.

How many people alive in Canada today really deserve to continue blaming their current circumstances on colonial settler injustices?

Edited March 15 by Zeitgeist

[WestCanMan]

45 minutes ago, Zeitgeist said:

Slavery is awful and we’re lucky not to have had much of it in Canadian colonial history.  A good book to read on the subject is The Book of Negroes.  

Slavery is awful... and every race owned slaves of other races. 

The Moors had millions of slaves in southern Europe, they did it for centuries, and at no point did they ever abolish slavery, so I'm not buying into the topic of "poor negroes" at all.

Slavery was centuries ago and my family worked in coal mines and fought wars since all that. I feel about as much white-slaver guilt as you feel guilt for black holes that are swallowing stars 1 million light years from here. 

If anything I feel guilt for what's happened to FN people, but that's a completely separate issue.

Quote

The worst of it for Canada was in Nova Scotia, but even there it was relatively small in numbers and ended well before slavery ended in the US.

There were more black slave-owners in the US than there were white slavers in Canada. It's a non-topic, at least for Canadians in general, if we're being honest.

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It’s just not an issue for blacks living in Canada today.

100% agree.

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The Indigenous stuff is messier in Canada,

For sure. It's a sad legacy, but the lies from the LPOC and FN people don't help, and blacks, muslims etc don't have any room to criticize us - they should be minding their own business and they don't. 

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but the sad truth is that it’s messier because Canadians tried to solve it through literacy and the Indian Act, which of course didn’t work well,

I think that it worked better than leftists like to admit.

They were, after all, a stone-age culture, and their children would still be illiterates with no prospects for participating in our society, even at the most basic levels, if not for res schools.

There's this constant narrative where we throw the baby out with the bathwater and it's not legitimate.

Sure, those schools were as bad as they could be for an alarming number of kids, but we're not allowed to hear about the kids who actually did benefit from them, and it's a lot. Any FN's kid who enjoys reading books, studying physics or astronomy, working with computers, or working as a professional of any sort has res schools to thank. If not for res schools they'd still be wearing moccasins, living in igloos and teepees, or working as low-end labourers. 

Let's not pretend that we'd have any native friends at all, because we wouldn't even speak the same language. 

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And that’s the irony of living in one of the most peaceful and successful countries: The more you solve problems, the more problems people seem to find and the more detailed and frivolous the demands become.

Ironically it was white people who abolished slavery yet somehow we're the ones left holding the bag. 

Blacks never abolished it. Asians never abolished it. Middle easterners never abolished it. The Chinese and Muslims still have slaves to this day. In "super-woke, liberal Brunei" they have tens of thousands of migrant workers whose passports are held and they work for nothing. Yet we're supposed to listen to lectures from these people? No thanks. 

Our society isn't perfect, and we have some skeletons - like everyone else - but this liberal apology session/anti-Canadian hatefest is the epitome of ignorance.

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It’s reached a point where we’re becoming dysfunctional and self-destructive because of guilt and shame.

Everything leftists put a hand to goes to hell in a handbasket. 

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Meanwhile I think slavery still exists in parts of Africa.

TBH, the word slavery is a bit of a red herring imo. 

The illegals that cross the border into the US aren't much better off than slaves. They don't have the rights of citizens, they are stuck working without the rights and protections of citizens, they live in basic slums, etc. The only difference is that their kids get access to education and they have actual prospects, but leftists still try to convince them that society is their enemy, and that belief essentially pins anyone down who's unfortunate enough to believe it.  

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It reminds me of the argument against reporting on the abuse of Indigenous children to CAS.  If people can argue that they’ve been victimized, somehow that makes some people entitled to victimize others.  “Intergenerational trauma” becomes the excuse for child abuse, alcoholism, etc.  Well some people may buy that excuse but I don’t, not really.  The victim mindset is unhealthy and removes personal responsibility.

I'm at a loss for words when it comes to 'how to help' the FN people. 

Really, when I think of minorities that thrive, the only success story is the Jews. The more they're treated like shit in the countries they're in, the stronger they become. 

I obviously don't think the answer is treating FN people worse than we already did, but I don't think that handouts are helping. 

I guess that Asians do really well here, and their MO is just to outwork everyone and not rock the boat. 

I dunno. I'd hate to have the ultimate power to do whatever I wanted in a situation like this because it seems like it's so easy to be 100% wrong. On paper, res schools didn't seem like they'd be the great Satan of all ideas imo, and they were pretty bad. As in unfathomably, mega-depraved bad in a lot of instances. I'm not gonna trust my own instincts here. I just don't know what to say.

Edited March 15 by WestCanMan

[eyeball]

On 3/14/2024 at 7:35 AM, I am Groot said:

Social Justice. Sounds like a reasonable concept, doesn't it? Of course, that depends on what kind of interpretation you put on it. Even the word 'justice' itself can be twisted, if you're of that kind of mindset.

It's not the word justice in the concept that twists you people into Mobius pretzels.

[Moonbox]

Speaking of the politicization of language...

[Michael Hardner]

30 minutes ago, Moonbox said:

Speaking of the politicization of language...

I think that's standard use though.  I think that the word 'left' itself though has been reshaped but maybe if Hollywood and Academia aren't responsible we can just ignore that ?

[blackbird]

36 minutes ago, Moonbox said:

Speaking of the politicization of language...

Printing on that is unreadable.  Way too small.

[herbie]

On 3/14/2024 at 7:35 AM, I am Groot said:

only requirement for social justice is that white people must not perform better than any other group

What in incredibly stupid interpretation of social justice.
Even without the usual racist BS that accommodating anyone else is discriminating against white Christian males.

[I am Groot]

4 hours ago, herbie said:

What in incredibly stupid interpretation of social justice.
Even without the usual racist BS that accommodating anyone else is discriminating against white Christian males.

No, 'social justice' is an incredibly stupid interpretation of justice.

What I describe is social justice at its fundamental base. It's all based on statistics about who is doing better or how many of this or that identity group are in this or that profession or job. And white people are the base. If any group is performing worse, it's time for state intervention due to racism. Nobody ever complains that Asians are doing the best - ever. Nobody ever says Asians are being racist because black people aren't matching them in economic success or the number of doctors or lawyers. No one cares how Asians do.

[I am Groot]

18 hours ago, eyeball said:

It's not the word justice in the concept that twists you people into Mobius pretzels.

No, it's the injustice and racism of it all. 

[eyeball]

19 minutes ago, I am Groot said:

No, it's the injustice and racism of it all. 

And the word social has nothing to do with it?  Colour me skeptical.

I can't think of any other word that triggers right wing suspicions faster. I mean good grief man look at the number of times you associated the concept with the left in your OP.

I figured there was little point reading past the part of your post that I quoted.

[Moonbox]

11 hours ago, eyeball said:

I can't think of any other word that triggers right wing suspicions faster.

What about just the "Left".  OP used it 15 times.  

[I am Groot]

13 hours ago, eyeball said:

And the word social has nothing to do with it?  Colour me skeptical.

I can't think of any other word that triggers right wing suspicions faster. I mean good grief man look at the number of times you associated the concept with the left in your OP.

I figured there was little point reading past the part of your post that I quoted.

Riiiiight, the 'concept' of 'social justice' isn't associated with the Left? 

Of course, to you, Social Justice means good things. But the Left have never exactly been noted for their sense of realism.