Language is more than just a tool we use to communicate with one another, it’s how we define our reality. You can perceive an entire world through the written word alone. How you talk about something and the words you use to describe a thing can completely control the way you think about or perceive it.
Nobody understands this more than the left, which found out long, long ago that if you truly want people to willingly go along with whatever your plan is, a huge part is controlling the way they talk about it. The tactic is well known, and was even highlighted by George Orwell with “1984” and “Newspeak.”
In fact, it exists in the real world, we just call it “political correctness.”
Political correctness is a plague on the human psyche, as it stops people from saying truths or helps soften the blow when discussing a subject that’s mightily inconvenient to the authoritarians in question.
Here in the West, the left is a huge fan of creating politically correct phrases that everyone has to obey. Not obeying them allows them to point at you and call you a social pariah. People are afraid to even cover certain topics for fear of being thought of as “one of those people,” whoever that might be at the time.
But lately, the PC words have gotten way out of hand.
This is always, of course, helped along by the media, and CNN is only happy to help the left with whatever narrative it’s trying to spread. Right now, the left is pushing very hard to have more “gender-inclusive” language. CNN released an explainer on what the words are and how to use them:
The use of phrases such as “pregnant people” or “penis owners” in cultural or political discourse is sometimes met with confusion, or even anger.
Why use these terms when, as some people ask, “only women can get pregnant” or when “only men have penises?”
Those people and institutions using gender-neutral language aim to be cognizant of the fact that sex doesn’t always align with gender identity, said psychiatrist Dr. Jack Drescher, past president of the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry and clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University in New York City. And it’s the most inclusive, streamlined way to refer to everyone who, regardless of their gender identity, has certain anatomy or biological abilities.
“We need to be doing a better job of educating people and realizing that sex and gender are a bit of a spectrum … and that they’re not the same,” said Keygan Miller, director of public training at The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ+ youth.
Notice the way they talk about this subject. They tell you it’s “inclusive” to do so, insinuating not using it is to be non-inclusive which is something only socially inept or evil people would do, and they reinforce that by bringing up “The Trevor Project” and the suicide hotline.
The strategy here is to get you to start using these terms out of precaution and guilt. Not using these terms may make someone commit suicide, or at least, that’s what they want you to think.
The real goal here isn’t protecting transgender people at all, it’s getting you to speak in such a way that further reinforces a “modern reality” and defines the way we speak about it. Doing so makes it more difficult to speak truths about gender identity, which is all junk science and lies.
When debate inevitably happens around it, if the left has done its job well, the general public will already be trained to believe that the established PC wording is used by the good guys and that the bad guys are evil people who use realistic language. They get to have the narrative around it all on their “home turf” and the usage of realistic words will come off as anything from uncaring and cold to uneducated.
Or at least that’s the plan.
Combatting this is actually easy but the people have to do it together.
The trick is to not care whose feelings you’re hurting and to use realistic language for every situation. There aren’t any “pregnant persons.” There are women. There aren’t “penis owners.” There are men. Not acknowledging reality is the attempted erasure of people’s very real identities in favor of make-believe ones, and no one should tolerate that in the least.
Keep speaking honestly and encourage everyone around you to do the same. Say it boldly at your workplace, around family, and around friends, because most people are going to agree with you but be too scared to say otherwise. It usually takes a well-meaning but firm, well-educated person to make people feel at ease about embracing the real, and you can be that person.