Language Matters

Language matters.

The descriptive words we use define our principles and positions.

Terms like “rebel” and “neo-confederate” have always been sneers by a supposedly morally righteous individual untainted by “treason” or “slavery”.

All four of those words are meaningless in current discourse.

The same can be said for “federalist” and “anti-federalist”. The perversion of the former and the creation of the latter has led to a distorted view of early American history.

We know the culture war is about the use of language to gain power, to force the obedient to genuflect to their new woke masters.

The suppression of free speech is one of the more dangerous components of the progressive left.

They have been doing it since the French Revolution.

Jeff Deist wrote a wonderful piece on this topic last week. Deist is the President of the Mises Institute. If you are not familiar with their work, you should go here.

Orwell famously wrote about the problems of distorting language and how it could be used for totalitarian purposes. But with fewer Americans interested in reading anything other than Twitter or spending time on Tic Toc, our functional illiteracy has led to willing dupes in society.

As Jefferson once wrote, “A nation that expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization expects what never was and what never will be.”

Ignorance may be bliss, but it is also dangerous when people vote.

No worries, though. As Queen Obama told a crowd a few years ago, even if you “know nothing about nothing”, you should still vote.

Democracy is on the line. And we have stupid leftist professors laying awake at night worrying about it. By the way, read the replies. It’s pure lunacy.

Deist’s piece was great Podcast fodder, so I discuss it on episode 719 of The Brion McClanahan Show.