If any of you have had the misfortune of reading print rags such as The New York Times or The Washington Post lately, or online abortions like Slate, Salon, or The Daily Kos, you know that the English language is being abused, butchered, and ironically used to attack the concepts of free speech and reason.  Others have noticed the decline in standards as well, some believing that many readers no longer possess the attention span necessary to absorb a long sentence, or that they just don't care.

It is possible to write with reason and passion, logic and emotion, style and structure.  Indeed, the best and most persuasive writing may well have all of these elements.  P.J. O'Rourke in his prime was an example of this.  Today, authors such as Mark Steyn, James Lileks, and Steve Rushin use their command of the language to entertain, amuse, and illustrate.  Rushin, who writes primarily about sports and culture, has the uncanny ability to make readers laugh heartily at one paragraph and feel a lump in their throat and a tear in their eye with the next.

Conversely, the left can't write — at least not well or with good humor.  This makes sense.  Leftists are an angry lot.  Victimology and entitlement don't lend themselves to rationality or pleasing prose.  Ideologues and preachers of propaganda typically aren't reflective enough to enlighten anyone.

Good writing is like good art.  You know it when you see it.  And feel it.  And believe it.

Progressives demand that "Black" be capitalized but "white" remain lowercase.  They demand that we use the "preferred pronouns" of people who identify as "non-binary."

As Churchill once said, tongue in cheek, after being chastised by a lesser light for ending a sentence with a preposition, "This is precisely the sort of pedantic nonsense up with which I shall not put."

Ernest Hemingway once encouraged aspiring writers to be honest.  "Papa" said, "Write the truest sentence that you know."  I will endeavor to do that now.

The truth shall set you free.

Graphic credit: Nick Youngson, Alpha Stock Images, CC BY-SA 3.0 license.

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