Written : Aug. 11, 2009
In 1948, George Orwell wrote his frightening novel, 1984, which suggested government would be meddling in our lives in ways we could never have imagined before. By the way, to come up with the title, Orwell simply reversed the last two digits of the then current year.
I can tell you Orwell’s book scared my politically radical parents to death. They envisioned a scenario in which right-wingers would conspire to craft sneaky ways to revise history and modify the English language for their own sinister purpose. One method for suppressing the people was to limit deep thought and personal expression by the forced substitution of certain words for others. Tight-fisted laws regarding word usage would be put in place to weaken the people and to make them more submissive. My parents hated the idea of censorship and my left-wing dad always told me I’d notice the first hint of a totalitarian regime in America when I notice people’s freedoms being reduced as we’re told what we can and cannot say or think.
Surprise! It’s the left, instead, which has implemented the policy my parents feared most. Fast forward to 2009. Textbook companies are being lobbied by left-wing groups to change the lingo in their tools of learning for the purpose of influencing social policy.
Tucker Carlson appeared on Fox & Friends (not on CNN, on Fox News Channel!) on July 29, 2009 and on August 6, 2009. In two different segments, he outlined the words and some phrases which will soon be forbidden. Big brother is coming.
The first is “Founding Fathers”. Instead we must use, “The Founders” or “The Framers”. This is because the first phrase is too male oriented! You’ll notice there’s a common theme to all of this censorship. Carlson said we wouldn’t want to suggest the men who wrote the Constitution were men! It would be historically accurate – but SCARY!
We must not use the words chairman and chairwoman. Those are sexist. Instead please say that they are pieces of furniture, or chairs. Do not say or write the word Congressman, in its place we’ll use “Member of Congress”. Examine the other words, fisherman, brotherhood, fellowship, freshman, workmanship, caveman. Notice the similarities – see how they suggest “male” and leave out “female”? - They actually don’t, those words were used without objection while I was growing up and their use was generic (the words meant male and/or female – the same words were never perceived as sexist before. Changes such as these are proposed because some people are horrified by generic words, such as “actor”! They want to sterilize our language of words they misperceive as insults. Be careful, this is censorship, or at least an attempt to change the way people express themselves in order to influence our sense of fairness and equality concerning the sexes. It strikes me as silly and petty. Why are people so sensitive these days, really?
You can watch one of Tucker Carlson’s appearances on Fox & Friends at the following link: Tucker Carlson on Fox & Friends E-mail me at mark.marj57@comcast.net to tell me what you think. If I get enough responses I’ll post them next week. If not, ok, but you know this is censorship and it shouldn’t be happening.
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Keywords: Conservatism, Conservative, blog, politics, political, Mark Cohen, Mark A. Cohen, From The Left to the Right, conservative blog, conservative blogs, censorship, 1984, Orwell
Keyword Phrases: "Conservatism", "Conservative", "blog", "politics", "political", "Mark Cohen", "Mark A. Cohen", "From The Left to the Right ", "conservative blog", "conservative blogs", " censorship”, “1984”, “Orwell”.
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