Tag: Political Correctness

MLLG

Political Correctness: Weaponizing Language

George Noga

Language frames our view of reality and changes the way we think of and treat people.

Political Correctness: Weaponizing Language

By: George Noga – November 14, 2021

Progressives are winning the culture war by seizing and weaponizing language. The best example is abortion. Leftists contort themselves into pretzels to avoid uttering the word abortion. Instead, they use palliatives such as women’s health, right to choose and reproductive rights. All the maskirovka notwithstanding, it is about abortion and only abortion; it has nothing to do with choice, health or rights. Nonetheless, they have largely succeeded in framing the issue as being about choice rather than abortion.

The master of weaponizing language was Winston Churchill. At Britain’s darkest hour even his own cabinet favored negotiating terms with Germany, i.e. surrendering. Then Churchill delivered his famous speech: “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.” Later in this post we present a Churchill collection showcasing how he weaponized the English language, mainly through humor.

Political correctness is propaganda and, like all propaganda, it is a lie.

The term political correctness (“PC”) was first coined by French philosopher Foucault in the 1960s as criticism of unscientific dogma, but its antecedents go back at least as far as Marx. The best definition I have seen is by economist Jeff Deist: “Political correctness is the conscious, designed manipulation of language intended to change the way people speak, write, think, feel and act, in furtherance of an agenda.”

Political correctness is not what you may think. It is not about politeness, good manners, social sensitivity, cultural awareness, inclusiveness, respect, caring, etiquette, deference, courtesy, being nice or about avoiding hurt feelings or slurs. It is an integral weapon in a war for your heart and mind with the ultimate goal of eviscerating the first amendment and criminalizing all speech distasteful to progressives.

We must fight back. We must never surrender the language.

Political correctness is about abnegating realities such as by calling a terrorist attack (Fort Hood) workplace violence. At bottom, PC is propaganda and, like all propaganda, it is a lie. It is about coercion, intimidation, control and totalitarianism. Thought police have existed for as long as demagogues have sought control over others. The only thing different this time is its ubiquity and the sheer lunacy of it all.

We must fight back. We must fight in the schools and universities. We must fight in the blogosphere. We must fight in the media. We must fight in pop culture. We must fight in social media and big tech. We must never surrender the language! Sound familiar? Humor, scorn and ridicule are effective in the battle against PC. And no one was better at those things than Winston Churchill. Following are some of his best uses of the English language to disarm and to put down those with whom he disagreed.

Collection of Lesser Known Churchillian Quips

“She got her good looks from her father; he was a plastic surgeon. . . . If I agreed with you, we both would be wrong. . . . Don’t argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience. . . . Light travels faster than sound; that’s why some people appear bright until you hear them speak. . . . History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it. . . . He has the gift of compressing the largest amount of words into the least amount of thought. . . . He is a modest man who has much to be modest about. . . . I have often had to eat my words, and I have found it a wholesome diet.”

Next is our special posting: An Authentic Thanksgiving Narrative.
More Liberty Less Government – mllg@cfl.rr.com – www.mllg.us

Real Doctors Versus Witch Doctors

George Noga

Progressivism drowns everyone in an endless sea of myths, banalities and outright lies.

Real Doctors Versus Witch Doctors

By: George Noga – February 28, 2021

The most disturbing trend in America today is the rapidly escalating number and gravity of disconnects between empirical reality and political correctness – between objective fact and logic on the one hand and vapid progressivism on the other.

I feel like a real doctor amidst a coven of witch doctors. I approach issues in a fact-based, logical manner; they screech truth-defying progressive mantras in unison like imps and banshees, believing the more often and louder they regurgitate their pallid screeds makes them truthful. I advocate principled solutions to public policy issues; they shriek socialistic incantations and prescribe antiscience remedies like applying leeches, bleeding and administering arsenic to bring the humours into balance.

As we begin the third decade of the twenty-first century, a cornucopia of marvels, thanks to free market capitalism, confronts us. Space flight is commonplace, medicine routinely performs miracles and technology brings us mind-boggling gadgets. Every measure of human well-being is the best it has been and is getting better all the time. Similarly, environmental metrics are the best in about 100 years and getting better.

Breathtaking social progress has been made in my lifetime. The status of women, minorities, LGTBQs and even animals has been elevated and virtually all vestiges of discrimination eliminated. The few racists that still exist are regarded by the rest of us as troglodytes; all of them could comfortably fit inside a high school gymnasium. Extreme poverty is nearly eliminated worldwide; in the US material poverty is reduced to 2%-3% of the population and exists mainly among those with cognitive disabilities, untreated mental illness and substance abuse. Food is so cheap the age old paradigm of the affluent being corpulent while the poor are gaunt has been reversed.

Progressivism is twenty-first century witchcraft

Amidst this horn of plenty there is one dismal creed that is seeking to reverse all the aforementioned miracles. That is progressivism and the misanthropic stepchildren it has spawned and midwifed. It goes by many names: ANTIFA, political correctness, BLM, environmentalism and democratic socialism. It brands its opponents heretics and seeks to control their speech just as Orwell’s Ministry of Truth. It drowns everyone in an endless sea of myths, irrelevances, banalities, inanities and outright lies. Progressivism is a dark force that panders to the lesser angels of our nature.

Progressives have long sought to implement their agenda through government. They already control public schools, universities, entertainment, labor unions and the media. They are taking over corporations, social media, technology companies, sports and even science. These dark forces are metastasizing worse than kudzu and with the same effect. They now may be able to achieve their goals without government.

Witchcraft is defined as “the exercise or invocation of alleged magical powers to control people or events.” BINGO! Progressivism is simply twenty-first century witchcraft – not unlike that of the Middle Ages. Witchcraft may work for a time but eventually people quit believing – when progressives’ “magic” time after time proves to be ineffective and destructive. Until such time arrives, MLLG will continue to present fact-based, principled analysis and prescriptions that work – like a real doctor.

Next on March 7th is our retrospective on the Trump presidency.
More Liberty Less Government – mllg@cfl.rr.com – www.mllg.us

Reality and Denial in America

George Noga
“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, won’t go away.” (Philip Dick)
Reality and Denial in America
By: George Noga – September 16, 2018

        Mokita is a word in the Kivila language of Papua New Guinea; it describes a truth everyone knows but agrees not to talk about or pretends doesn’t exist. There’s no comparable English word; however, mokitas are regular topics in conversations behind closed doors, around kitchen tables and office water coolers throughout America. Political correctness or “PC” demands such conversations not take place publicly or even be acknowledged. This post intrepidly addresses mokita in America.

        Reality does not go away because it is unpopular, politically incorrect or even offensive. Objective realities exist despite what we want them to be, despite what political correctness demands they be and despite aggressive suppression of the truth that is a central fact of modern progressivism. Subordination of objective reality to political imperatives has always been a central tenet of totalitarian regimes.

         Progressives assert benign motives for PC such as preventing loss of self-esteem. Some are willing privately to acknowledge reality but argue that the truth would be unnecessarily hurtful to protected groups. But clinging to false PC narratives does not alter the underlying facts – which John Adams famously noted are stubborn things. But lies have consequences and any society choosing fantasy over reality is at grave risk.

        PC is particularly virulent when it involves groups with victim status. Of 325 million Americans, statistically 2.5%, (8 million) have an IQ two standard deviations below the norm (below 70 IQ), which means de facto retardation. Not uncoincidentally, there are about 8 million Americans in material poverty. It is incandescently obvious these two cohorts are the same; nonetheless, we delude ourselves about the cause of poverty because it is politically incorrect to blame it on low cognitive ability. To varying degrees, the same is true of homelessness, crime and even failing schools.

        Mokita thrives at the University of Pennsylvania where law professor, Amy Wax, was savaged for openly criticizing Penn’s racial preference policy. Wax, intending to be supportive of blacks, noted that quotas can harm their ability to succeed by putting them in over their heads at elite schools. Penn’s law faculty and administration knew Wax was correct and never tried to refute her facts. Instead, they brutally attacked her, not for being wrong but, for violating a mokita by publicly speaking a known truth.

       The Law School Admission Council has compiled data on 27,000 law students in 90% of law schools. After one year, 50% of blacks ranked in the bottom tenth versus 5% of whites. Two-thirds of blacks were in the bottom fifth while only 10% were in the top half. After 5 attempts, 22% of blacks did not pass the bar versus 3% of whites. Racial preferences are to make white liberals feel good about themselves and to create jobs for diversity, equity and inclusion bureaucrats. The beneficiaries of preferences suffer; they fail to get choice clerkships, law firm slots or even to pass the bar.

         Whenever we see someone from an identity or victim group occupying a position that seems incongruous, we wonder whether it is a result of merit or quotas; whether it is due to qualifications or to political correctness; or if it stems from competence rather than from preferences or window dressing. This is grossly unfair to and demeans those members of victim groups who achieved their positions solely through merit.

        Mokita is present whenever truth yields to power. Mokita is present whenever fear of reprisal yields to political correctness. Mokita is present whenever facts yield to identity or victim group politics. But, in the end, objective reality always prevails and, unlike progressive denials, it wont go away when people stop believing in it.

Our next post on September 23rd continues our discussion of the debt crisis.

A Politically Correct Christmas

George Noga
Trigger Warning! Despite our very best effort to be 100% politically correct,
this post uses the term “Christmas” and may contain other microaggressions. 
A Politically Correct Christmas
By: George Noga – December 11, 2016

      Begin by recognizing Santa Claus as a phallocentric, atherosclerotic white male existing within an ageist, authoritarian hierarchy. Only children adhering to bourgeois capitalistic values and to moral absolutism (by agreeing not to be naughty) receive gifts during the Celebration of Winter (formerly Christmas). Such children are brainwashed and seduced into an exploitative, metastasizing consumerism. Gifts are thinly-disguised payola intended to create lifelong addiction to over consumption.

Santa’s bribes to gift-addled children are made by degendered, height-challenged, differently-abled elves at the North Pole, a post-colonial, non-union, right-to-work setting. Regrettably, Obamacare has forced Santa to cap total elf employment at 49 and to limit their work week to 29 hours. The elves and reindeer must constantly avoid stepping off the shrinking polar ice cap and dodge polar bears on passing ice floes.

The tectonic pressure to exchange gifts leads to psychoses not covered by atavistic health insurance plans of rapacious insurance companies. Scrooge-like robber barons, like Wal-Mart, lure unsuspecting shoppers with elaborate decorations, holiday music and even (horrors) low prices. Avoid any stores that stoop so low as to provide ersatz Santas to confuse, coax and cajole young children into an anti-proletarian lifestyle.

PC decor for the Celebration of Winter excludes Christmas-centric trees and any ornaments designed to hang on trees. Also offensive are images of Santa, reindeer, and anything (even napkins) red or green. Even more offensive are nativity scenes and candy canes, the shape of which represents a shepherd’s crook. Snowflakes, snow globes and snowpeople are acceptable; after all, it is a Celebration of Winter. Avoid holiday lights; the energy wasted inexorably leads to more evil fracking and pipelines.

Eschew toys made in China with slave labor, subsidies and currency manipulation, then shipped around the world leaving a humongous carbon footprint. Don’t use wrapping paper or send cards as the environmental impact requires clear cutting of old growth trees and sacrificing spotted owls on the altar of consumerism; moreover, disposing of all the waste requires countless new landfills. After Christmas lines to return gifts attest to the depravity; obviously, people neither needed nor wanted gifts.

Avoid gender specific gifts, the most egregious being NRA-inspired toy guns for the deplorable and irredeemably racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, and Islamophobic boys in flyover land. They will cling to their new guns along with their religion. Certain gifts are acceptable like PCC pills distributed to snowflakes on rape-infested campuses, preferably with funds coerced from the Little Sisters of the Poor. Vacations to socialist havens like Venezuela and North Korea are popular with progressives.

Once all unwanted gifts and waste materials are recycled, avoid binge eating a/k/a Christmas dinner, a microaggression to those with food insecurities. Before eating, skip grace or even a moment of silence, which is but a veiled attempt at prayer. Select organic, non-GMO, sustainable, local and fair-traded foods; tofu is a good choice. Avoid turkey loaded with growth hormones, mutagens, carcinogens and antibiotics, although turkey is preferable to a Chick-fil-A washed down by a 24-ounce Big Gulp.

Ensure that a variety of rest rooms is available for GLBTQ+ who may use any one or more he/she/it/they wish depending on his/her/its/their gender self identity at that moment. For anyone overwhelmed, be sure to provide a safe room with elevator music, teddy bears, videos of frolicking puppies, Play-Doh and warm milk and cookies.

Next up on December 18th is our traditional Christmas posting. 

Political Correctness in America

George Noga

Political correctness is cultural Marxism; its ultimate objective is to criminalize speech  liberals find objectionable. Freedom of speech ends where political correctness begins.
Political Correctness in America
By: George Noga – October 9, 2016

       The term political correctness or “PC” was coined by French philosopher Foucault in the 1960s as criticism of unscientific dogma. Its antecedents go back at least as far as Marx. In this post we explain what PC is, what it is not and how it can be defeated.

     PC is an election issue thanks to Ben Carson and Donald Trump. Resentment of PC (and green-washing) has been building for decades like pressure inside a pressure cooker. It has metastasized far beyond politics with hospitals now calling deaths negative patient outcomes. Many believed it would be with us forever until Carson and Trump blew the lid off and triggered a revolt of the politically incorrect.

      PC is not what you may think. It is not about politeness, good manners, social sensitivity, cultural awareness, inclusiveness, respect, caring, etiquette, deference, courtesy, civility, being nice or avoiding hurt feelings or slurs. So, what is PC?

     The best definition I have seen was by economist Jeff Deist: “PC is the conscious, designed manipulation of language intended to change the way people speak, write, think, feel and act, in furtherance of an agenda.” Deist goes on to assert that PC is propaganda and, like all propaganda, a lie. It abnegates the underlying reality such as by Obama calling Fort Hood workplace violence instead of Islamic terrorism. PC is about coercion, intimidation, control, totalitarianism, Marxism and Maoism.

     Thought police have existed for as long as demagogues have sought to control people. It may be different this time only in terms of how long it has persisted and the sheer lunacy of it all – as in triggering and microaggressions. Carson and Trump exposed the massive resentment festering among the non elites who are as mad as hell and aren’t going to take it any more. So, what can be done to kill the PC virus?

     The first step, as always, is to recognize the truth; hopefully this post helps accomplish that. Second, understand that the stakes in this struggle are high; PC is a long-term war for your heart and mind with the ultimate goal of eviscerating the first amendment and criminalizing speech distasteful to progressives. Third, fight back!

     In the battle against PC, humor, scorn and ridicule are effective; PC is such sheer madness that, deep down, even  liberals know it. Around Christmas whenever I see a store sign that says “holiday“, I make a point of asking a store manager which holiday it is; the reactions are priceless. Finally, please remember that our PC opponents are not idiots, they just have taken a long detour off the information superhighway.

The next post is entitled “Uber and Gay Marriage”. You won’t want to miss it.
MLLG

The Panacea of Economic Growth

George Noga
By: George Noga – November 1, 2014
       Throughout its 238 years, the US economy has grown by over 3.0% annually, although data for the early years are problematic. For the 60 years from 1940 to 2000, the US economy grew at a rate of 3.6%. For the following 14 years from 2001 to the present, GDP grew by 1.8%, exactly half that rate. If growth remains tepid, Americans will not recover the ground they lost and their children and grandchildren will, for the first time, be worse off than the previous generation.
        America has transmogrified into Europe which is in permanent recession due to its failed economic policies. Even stalwart Germany is beginning to stagnate. France is destroying its economy in a fit of socialistic angst. Italy has a lower GDP per capita than it had 15 years ago. Meanwhile in Brussels, Jean-Claude Junker continues to strangle EU countries with bureaucrats and regulations. In Europe a 2% growth rate is seen as optimistic, 1.5% as acceptable and no growth as possible. The average European in one generation fell 25% behind the average American due solely to differences in GDP growth. As I wrote last month, just in the past 5 years, the average American has been impoverished by 17% due to the low growth rates coming out of the recession compared to the historic growth rates in similar times. In short, we already have become like Europe although Europe continues to plumb ever new depths. We are well along in suffering a lost decade on the path to a lost generation; our progeny, like Europeans today, will lead lives of quiet desperation.
“Failure to grow America’s economy is a choice; decline is not inevitable.”
        Failure to grow our economy is a choice; decline is not inevitable. It is a choice made by our political leaders solely because they prefer to demagogue inequality, class warfare and corporate profit for perceived electoral gain. It is a choice made by the media because they are lazy, economically illiterate and prefer to flog dead camels. It also has been a choice made by ordinary Americans in the voting booth for all of the aforementioned reasons advanced by politicians and the media. There are strong signals however that ordinary Americans now are beginning to want economic growth.
Economic Growth as the Panacea

        As trumpeted by the headline of this blog post, economic growth is a panacea; indeed, it is the only solution for every problem (real and perceived) that we face today and for the coming generation. It is apropos that Panacea is the Greek Goddess of healing because strong economic growth will heal everything; to wit:

  • The crisis of spending, debt and deficits: A sustained period of strong economic growth (combined with some spending restraint) will enable the US to restore fiscal balance and to stabilize its debt thereby gradually lowering the Debt/GDP ratio to its long-term historical level of around 30%.
  • Climate change and environment: If in the distant future climate change causes some issues, the best antidote is a vibrant economy that will easily enable us to spend whatever is needed to mitigate any such problems.  Only countries with strong economies can afford to spend copiously on the environment.
  • National security: The single greatest asset (weapon) we possess for our national security is a growing, resilient economy. This enables us to spend whatever is necessary to deter any possible adversaries and to defend ourselves should that be necessary. Weakness invites aggression and fosters terrorism.
  • Jobs, poverty and inequality: It is economic growth, not government, that creates jobs. It is sustained growth that fulfills the American dream and eliminates poverty; moreover, growth is the great equalizer.
  • Unfunded mandates: The USA is facing $350 trillion (over one-third of a quadrillion) in unfunded commitments in the next 50 years for Social Security, Medicare, government pensions, Obamacare and other programs.   Absent  a high rate of growth, these promises not only cannot be kept but will require drastic reductions in programs.
Recipe for Economic Growth

      Okay, so economic growth is the panacea; what must we do to achieve it? The answer is straightforward and attainable. If we do the following  we will achieve vigorous, long-lasting economic growth.

  1. Political consensus: Probably the single most difficult hurdle for achieving growth is reaching a political consensus. Politicians and the media must agree to pursue policies that maximize growth and agree to stick with such policies for the long term. They can continue to argue over how to divide the wealth that results; that is what politics is about. Absent some consensus however, achieving sustained growth becomes problematic.
  2. Tax and fiscal policy: Taxes (personal and corporate) must be reduced, simplified and stable. People and businesses must be able to plan ahead and certainty about taxation is indispensable to investment and job creation. In the same vein, spending needs to be restrained.
  3. Eliminate uncertainty: Business hates uncertainty; it stifles planning and results in gridlock. There needs to be a broad and sustained political understanding about taxes, regulations and new initiatives.
  4. Sound money: The Fed should focus only on maintaining sound money and fighting inflation. A strong, stable and sound dollar are indispensable for a vibrant economy.
  5. Regulation: The economy is being strangled by regulation and litigation. We need to have a moratorium on new regulations while we gradually reform and roll back existing ones. Our tort system needs to be reformed.
  6. Energy: We should develop every possible energy source including ANWR, offshore and shale and natural gas on federal and state lands. We should export LNG immediately from many terminals and, of course, construct the Keystone XL Pipeline. Such a policy will create jobs, make us energy independent, stimulate the economy and, importantly, prove to be a potent weapon in keeping Putin and Russia in check.
  7. School choice: I include this because educated, trained workers are a potent economic resource. Further, school choice will bring about more equality and reduce poverty. It also is a panacea.
     The choice is ours. We can continue on our present slow growth trajectory which will condemn future generations to a downward spiraling economy and reduced living standards; they will experience untold miseries as the crisis of spending, debt and deficits culminates in a meltdown. They will inhabit a Clockwork Orange nation drowning in taxes, regulation and uncertainty. They will have part time jobs for low wages. At best they will collect 65% of the present Social Security benefits deferred until they are age 70; Medicare and Obamacare (also age 70) will be busted; health care rationed and long waits common for poor treatment. They will inherit a volatile, dangerous world where nuclear weapons proliferate, a revanchist, aggressive Putin-led Russia and all without the resources for adequate national defense.
       Or, we can make a different choice; we can choose to reject decline and to embrace high-growth policies. This would lead to a virtuous circle of better education, abundant and cheap energy, and to a far safer and more secure nation and world. It would result in fixing the debt crisis and funding all the promises we have made for the future. Most of all, it would help ordinary Americans. As year after year of high growth enriches America, the politicians can fight over how to best divide up this cornucopia – including addressing any inequality issues.
       Firstoff however, we must make the right choice. This gets us right back to the heart of Alexander Hamilton’s question: “Whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend on accident and force.” Is America today still capable of putting politics aside when self preservation is at stake? Or, do we heed the Siren song of politicians advocating failed ideologies, searching for Utopias and demagoguing political correctness, class warfare and inequality?