PrintNovember 29, 2009
Semantic Engineering
Lee Cary's highly detailed November 15, 2009 article -- "The AT Readers' Complete Lexicon of Political Speech" -- describes quite accurately the distorted and deceptive meanings that the radical Left routinely gives to a long list of common words and phrases in our political discourse.
But even this 70-point exposé covers only one important element -- the already existing element -- of the global "war of words" which is being waged against those of us who share the fundamental truth-in-language concerns cited by Confucius 2,400 years ago. When asked what would be his first priority if he were placed in charge of the government, the great Chinese thinker replied:
It would certainly be to correct language. If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant. If what is said is not what is meant, then what ought to be done remains undone. If this remains undone, then morals and acts deteriorate. If morals and acts deteriorate, justice will go astray. If justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion. Hence, there must be no arbitrariness in what is said. This matters above everything.
Surely, Lee Cary's list will provide much grist for such corrections -- if concerned word-warriors will actually get busy fighting for the truthful language we need so badly. But what about the equally urgent need for an arsenal of new words, labels, acronyms, and frames of reference which might help counterbalance the radical Left's cynical manipulation of so many existing ones?
Inventing new semantic weapons
Over the past several years, TrueSpeak.org articles in various venues have recommended some two dozen such new words, phrases, and acronyms for inclusion in the political lexicon. These are coined and engineered terms which cover several different but overlapping disciplines -- political, military, environmental, economic, religious, ideological, sociological, egotistical, and more.
Although many of these new semantic tools are transparently anti-Left, anti-"Progressive," and anti-Obama, they are neither "right-wing Republican," nor even "partisan," because they are presented by a lifelong center-right Democrat and former Chief of Staff for almost two decades to three distinguished Democratic Committee Chairmen in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. With that said, consider the following useful new additions to the language:
1. Branch Carbonian Cult -- new name for the Gore-inspired, and now Obama-led, pseudo-religious cult based on the false premise that man-made CO2 is the primary cause of Global Warming. (For a complete explanation, see http://www.americanthinker.com/jim_guirard/)
2. Scamalot -- an invidious comparison to the purportedly noble and heroic "Camelot" Era of John and Jackie Kennedy -- and a fitting legacy label for the ignoble, scam-filled, "Audacity of Hype" Era of Barack and Michelle Obama. (Do these people scam just a little, or do they Scamalot?)
3. Communoid -- communist-like, and in the case of many so-called "former" communists, perhaps still communist or single-party socialist.
4. CommieCzar -- shorthand for a self-declared communist (or communoid) "President for Life" such as Hugo Chavez of Venezuela -- or for an Obama-appointed regulatory "Czar" such as Van Jones, who is, in fact, a communist.
5. Bolshivarian Revolution -- correct new name (La Revolución Chavista-Bolshevista in Spanish) for Hugo Chavez' so-called "Bolivarian Revolution." (Simón Bolívar was a nationalist, not a Chavista Communist.)
6. Cubazuela -- new name for today's Cuba-like, fascist-Left former South American democracy of Venezuela.
7. Cubazuelan Empire -- new name for the narco-communoid, "Socialism or Death" Latin American empire of Cuba, Cubazuela, Cubaragua, Bolivia and Ecuador -- and with Honduras still in danger of being sucked in, as well.
8. OutForcing -- forcing jobs out of America by over-taxation, over-regulation, NIMBY factors, no tort law reform, less energy at higher prices...
9. DownForcing -- the current Obama-Pelosi-Reid policy forcing down (and even out) most major domestic sources of energy supply.
10. Eeekology -- scare-tactics environmentalism of the "sky is falling" Branch Carbonian Cult variety.
11. Eeekonomics -- scare-tactics and doomsday propaganda about the American economy, usually calling for "Progressive" (long the radical Left's codeword for socialist) solutions.
12. Exsurgents -- violent and terroristic agitators coming from outside the country or the region, while "insurgents" come from inside.
13. Fu'ther-mucking Progressives -- "mucking" things up even fu'ther than they already are and making everything "Progressively" worse in the process.
14. GreenOuts -- expected electricity "blackouts" and "brownouts" caused by the Branch Carbonian Cult's "Green" policies re: both environment and energy.
15. Great LEAHP Backward -- inevitable result of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid "Progressive" job-killing policies of Less Energy At Higher Prices (LEAHP).
15. Gulag Guevara -- Cuba's brutal and highly secretive "Che"-Guevara-designed prison system, of which this Argentine psychopath was the first de facto warden, torturer and coup de gras executioner
16. OPRAH Land -- acronym label for the "Obama-Pelosi-Reid And Hillary" administration now in power in the Congress, the White House, the Washington bureaucracy, and major parts of the economy, as well
17. Pairriage -- new word for so-called "same-sex marriage" and "same-sex unions," based on the non-pejorative and merely descriptive word "pair" -- meaning two of a kind or two of the same, and avoiding any version whatever of the word "marriage."
18. POOTUS -- Obama-related acronym for "Proponent of Over-Taxing Us," patterned after the Bush-related label POTUS (President of the United States).
19. ProgSoc -- an Orwellian "EngSoc"-style label for the "Progressive Socialist" ideology championed by Barack Obama and his radical-Left entourage.
20. Properganda -- spreading of selective but objectively truthful information, as contrasted to the presumed falsity and deception of "propaganda."
21. Quondam Fi -- Latin antonym for the U.S. Marine Corps' "Semper Fi" (Always Faithful) slogan and meaning "Formerly Faithful" or "No Longer Faithful" -- as in the case of Rep. John Murtha.
22. Diplunacy -- international diplomacy of a foolish, wasteful, bureaucratic, or even lunatic quality, typical of the endlessly perverse United Nations.
23. AWOL (new political, non-war meaning) -- those who are Always Weak On Liberty, as opposed to the traditional military meaning of "Absent With-Out Leave"
24. ACE (new political, non-war meaning) -- those traitorous types who are giving "Aid and Comfort to the Enemy," as opposed to an "ACE" fighter pilot, or a best-of-the-best competitor or contestant.
25. AIDS (new socio-economic meaning) -- the geo-political acronym for Aggravating, Insufferable, Debilitating Socialism (a.k.a. "Progressivism").
While some of these mostly "politically incorrect" words will be more relevant and useful than others, all of them should be evaluated and creatively used -- particularly in light of the above quotation from Confucius and in keeping with very similar words of wisdom from the late, great U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
It was Moynihan and Dr. Fred Charles Ikle, President Reagan's Under-Secretary of Defense for Policy, who defined and worried greatly about the Cold War problem of "semantic infiltration" (and its Soviet-inspired manipulation of language) as follows:
Simply put, semantic infiltration is the process whereby we come to adopt the language of our adversaries in describing political reality. The most totalitarian regimes in the world would call themselves 'liberation movements.' It is perfectly predictable that they should misuse words to conceal their real nature. But must we aid them in that effort by repeating those words? Worse, do we begin to influence our own perceptions by using them?
In today's context, both the "arbitrariness" about which Confucius was so concerned and the "infiltration" and self-deceptive parroting about which Moynihan and Ikle worried should greatly worry us as well.
Notice, please, how very similar today's Obaman language of "Black Liberation Theology" and "Progressive Movements" and "Social Justice" is to Fidel Castro's and Hugo Chavez' anti-American, anti-capitalist, "group rights" language of what they proudly call "21st-century socialism" -- which is the euphemistic communist name for egalitarian poverty and repression forever.
Jim Guirard, truespeak.org
