TODAY'S RAMBLINGS
3 Minute Read
Happy Wednesday, and this is another side of Monday’s RAMBLINGS.
First, a confession: I wrote most of today’s post before Dear Leader announced his genius plan to rename the Department of Defense the Department of War. Please don’t misconstrue my derision today of overly-correct language as meaning I am somehow in favor of this beyond-childish, beyond-wasteful, and beyond-embarrassing act.
I think I’ll call it the Department of Jeffrey Epstein instead.
Oh, and Israel bombed Qatar yesterday, and Poland shot down Russian drones over its airspace last night. I guess Trump should hold off booking his trip to pick up the Nobel Peace Prize?
I heard an explanation recently of how - somehow - Trump retains his power, and why the Democrats seem impotent in doing anything to stop him.
As it turns out, I’m not the only one asking the question:
It is their current cover story, and the article rightly asks, among other things, why are the Democrats so universally disliked - even by Democrats?
I have the big answer, and then a part of the solution. The big answer:
Americans prefer a leader that’s strong and wrong, vs. weak and right.
I think that is at least a plausible explanation of Trump being allowed to remain on the scene. I will not recount his . . . departures from our country’s cherished norms, but it might explain why (why, why) this cretin is still around?
As I like to say - we are talking about Donald Trump, after all. At a minimum, he is objectively not a man of American virtue and beliefs, at least as I used to understand them.
Put another way: Would you want your child to emulate his behavior? Ever?
It hasn’t seemed to matter, because:
Us ‘murkins like our Presidents tough.
And a big reason Democrats are perceived as weak is because of the language some have saddled themselves with: language I long ago termed Psycho Woke.
Others, with a somewhat larger platform than I, seem to agree.
There’s an organization called Third Way, that is trying to return sanity to my fellow Democrats. From the About part of their website:
Third Way is a national think tank and advocacy organization that champions moderate policy and political ideas. Our work on the center left acts as a critical bulwark against political extremism.
As part of a powerful essay, they described the vocabulary of Psycho Wokeness - the completely nutty words some have contorted themselves into using. Third Way offers a perfect explanation (emphasis mine):
The intent of this language is to include, broaden, empathize, accept, and embrace.
(But) the effect of this language is to sound like the extreme, divisive, elitist, and obfuscatory, enforcers of wokeness. To please the few, we have alienated the many.
To please the few, we have alienated the many.
That should be fucking tattooed on the foreheads of many.
Their prescription is simple and less drastic: Speak like a human being and don’t use words that wouldn’t pass muster as a skit on Saturday Night Live.
Oh, Portico, what are those words?
Here, from Third Way’s “Was it Something I Said?” essay is essentially the Psycho Woke Dictionary. They were even kind enough to categorize the words for us.
Therapy-Speak
These words say “I’m more empathetic than you, and you are callous to hurting other’s feelings.”
Privilege
Violence (as in “environmental violence”)
Dialoguing
Othering
Triggering
Microaggression/-assault/-invalidation
Progressive stack
Centering
Safe space
Holding space
Body shaming
Seminar Room Language
This language says “I’m smarter and more concerned about important issues than you. Your kitchen table concerns are small.”
Subverting norms
Systems of oppression
Critical theory
Cultural appropriation
Postmodernism
Overton Window
Heuristic
Existential threat to [climate, the planet, democracy, the economy]
Organizer Jargon
These words say “we are beholden to groups, not individuals. People have no agency.”
Radical transparency
Small ‘d’ democracy
Barriers to participation
Stakeholders
The unhoused
Food insecurity
Housing insecurity
Person who immigrated
Gender/Orientation Correctness
These say “your views on traditional genders and gender roles are at best quaint.”
Birthing person
Inseminated person
Pregnant people
Chest feeding
Cisgender
Deadnaming
Heteronormative
Patriarchy
LGBTQIA+
I’m adding the whole pronoun insanity, too. But no offense to those announcing you’re He, She or They. Just don’t imagine there’s something wrong or sexist or whatever about me because I don’t. There isn’t.
The Shifting Language of Racial Constructs
These words signal that talking about race is even more of a minefield. You will be called out as racist if you do not use the latest and correct terminology.
Latinx
BIPOC
Allyship
Intersectionality
Minoritized communities
Explaining Away Crime
This says: “The criminal is the victim. The victim is an afterthought.”
Justice-involved
Carceration
Incarcerated people
Involuntary confinement
I wanted to write a powerful conclusion, but Third Way beat me to it.
Again, the emphasis is mine, and this is precisely how I feel.
We will never abandon our values or stop doing things to protect those who need help, encouragement, trust, a second chance, acceptance, a fair shake, and the opportunity to pursue life, liberty and happiness.
But as the catastrophe of Trump 2.0 has shown, the most important thing we can do for these people and causes is to build a bigger army to fight them.
Communicating in authentic ways that welcome rather than drive voters away would be a good start.
Leadership. Strength. But with no bullying or harassment - of anyone, but we must dump the bullshit, too. Watch how easy it is:
Maybe Third Way needs a turn-key political party platform that is right down the middle?
And I sure hope nobody missed the irony in my use of Al Franken playing the squishy Stuart Smalley on Saturday Night Live in the lead photo.
I hope you’ll pause tomorrow and remember 24 years ago. If nothing else, please remember the unity we all felt as Americans that terrible day.
FROM THE UNWASHED MASSES
Thank you for reading this newsletter.
KLUF
You’re not going to hear Johnny Cougar throwing around nonsense like inseminated person or chest (!) feeding.
Or John Mellencamp, either, for that matter.