That the political left in the U.S. and elsewhere have for decades been bastardizing language in their endless quest for raw political power is beyond dispute.

The most recent assault on language from the left is the urgent need to redefine the meaning of the word recession.  Instead of championing pro-growth economic policies that would actually counter recessionary pressures, most of these the direct result of their economic agenda, they would rather gaslight people into thinking we aren't really in a recession by moving the goalposts.  This after telling us for the last year and a half that "inflation was transitory."  Who knew that Joe Biden could make Jimmy Carter look like King Solomon?

Going back even farther, that the political left has appropriated the term "liberal" for their movement has become another affront to language (and decency).  From the Oxford dictionary:

Adjective

1.willing to respect or accept behavior or opinions different from one's own; open to new ideas.

2.relating to or denoting a political and social philosophy that promotes individual rights, civil liberties, democracy, and free enterprise.

Noun

1. a supporter of policies that are socially progressive and promote social welfare.

2. a supporter of a political and social philosophy that promotes individual rights, civil liberties, democracy, and free enterprise.

There may have been a point in time in the distant past of the Democrat party when this was an apt definition, but today's Democrats have strayed so far from these principles it would be shamefully if they were capable of that emotion.

"a political and social philosophy that promotes individual rights, civil liberties, democracy, and free enterprise."

The Biden (and "liberal") agenda is to obliterate all of these things.  The reality they've delivered is a powerful central government working hand in glove with tech oligarchs to quash free speech and deplatform any who would dissent from the party line — any questioning of the 2020 election, the origin of the Wuhan virus, censoring the Hunter Biden laptop story.  All just as George Orwell warned.

Likewise, the cabal of Democrat party operatives, Deep State tools, and state media puppets to promote false stories of "Russian collusion" to destroy a duly elected president is another shining example of the modern "liberal" project. 

The Washington Post's David Ignatius was a central player in this endeavor.  Numerous stories sourced to anonymous high-level intelligence and law enforcement officials under his byline were central to the effort.  I can give his readers a pass for believing his propaganda because they wanted it to be true, but for an experienced "journalist" like Mr. Ignatius to just run with these stories without displaying an ounce of journalistic curiosity is total dereliction of duty.  If he possessed any measure of dignity, integrity, or journalistic ethics, he would have outed his sources when these stories all came crashing down as we now know they were all total fabrications.  But he hasn't.

Not to be outdone, the New Your Times also did more than its fair share in the conspiracy to destroy Donald Trump.  I find it interesting that many of their "big stories" are bylined to multiple reporters.  I don't know if this is to provide plausible deniability to the reporters individually when the truth ultimately come out or what but come out it has.  Did the nation's two premier newspapers express humility and beg for forgiveness to recover at least a shred of their lost credibility.  No, they awarded themselves Pulitzer Prizes.

I read somewhere that the only difference between the readers of the New York Times and the readers of the Soviet-era state mouthpiece Pravda is that the Pravda readers knew they were being lied to.  Amen to that!

Finally, I would like to take exception to another of the left's more recent linguistic assaults: "gender-affirming care."  To call this "care" is both linguistic and medical malpractice.  Here is an excellent piece on this travesty of modern medicine and thought from Bari Weiss (former NYT editor)'s Common Sense Substack.  One of the more reasoned arguments I've heard against this practice comes from Bill Maher, who said something to the effect of, and I'm paraphrasing from memory here, When I was eight years old, I wanted to be a pirate.  Thank God there was no one there to rush me to the hospital for peg leg and eye removal surgery.  So there you have it.  When Bill Maher represents the voice of reason from the left, the apocalypse must be nigh.

Image via Max Pixel.