Remember the power of words. Jews, Christians, and Moslems believe that the Lord God Almighty initiated Creation by proclaiming, “Let there be light!” Christians believe that Jesus Christ was that very Word of God, the aspect of the Divinity that made all that exists, made incarnate.
In the story of the Garden of Eden, Adam was the namer of all creatures. This did not merely involve associating a sound like “dog” with the four-legged barking chaser descended from wolves. Theologically, God was allowing Adam, a human man, to engage in secondary creation. The very act of naming the dog shaped its nature, sharpening and defining it.
In most world mythology, naming is not merely a convention for designating a particular individual body. A being’s true name was indelibly connected with its soul. This is why in most mythic and magical traditions, learning a being’s true name gives power over it.
Every single culture recognizes the power and importance of words in some fashion. The unique power of words and the benefits of living within the constraints of objective reality are at the heart of today’s controversies.
Today’s America, along with the rest of our contemporary Western Civilization, is wracked by debates over the meaning of life, the characteristics of choice, and the setting of priorities. Most of these disputes are waged through the willful redefinition of what words mean.
In no particular order, to be clear:
“White Supremacy” is not a love of traditional Western Civilization and an appreciation of objective reality, but merely one of many tribal delusions.
“Racism” is not support for a colorblind meritocracy where a person is judged by the content of their individual character; rather it is the denial of free will in the face of ethnicity.
“Gender” is a biological reality, not a personal choice. Men and women exist, as do boys and girls. One’s sexual preferences does not alter this.
“Normality” is not oppressive groupthink, but rather is a culture’s naturally evolved acceptable standard for conduct and manners.
“Community Standards” are what locals actually expect in their interactions and are not re-definable by activist Social Engineers.
“Law”, under our Constitution, exists to protect us from enemies both foreign and domestic, and not to restructure society into anyone’s utopia.
“Problematic” does not represent an objective standard of value but is rather an epithet designed to silence public dissent through shame.
“Misogyny” is a psychotic hatred of females and not a thought crime transgression for disagreeing with the most extreme notions of movement Feminists.
“Levies” are emergency funding measures intended to address sudden crises and should never be normalized.
“Freedom” is our natural and God-given inalienable right to think, speak, and act independently of the preferences of the powerful within the broadest possible social limits; it is not the gift of a generous elite.
“Rights” do not exist only when rulers permit them to commoners, but are instead basic traits of our humanity only superseded under law when one has been convicted of a serious crime.
“Misinformation” is not merely news or information that disagrees with one’s own cherished beliefs, because truth is not the sole possession of any single human ideological group.
“Insurrection” is not an exercise of free speech in protest against the outcome of a very questionable election process, but is rather a bloody armed rebellion against both the current government and the wider society.
“Free Speech” need not be free of controversy; its most important aspect is the kind of dissent that must inevitably provoke offense and outrage.
“Discord” is not the failure of a community to come together, but instead is what happens in a community so strong that its citizens can agree to most heartily disagree about critically important convictions without splitting into violent conflicting factions.
“Diversity” is not best found in those possessing divergent birth characteristics coming together in a shared worldview; rather it is a functional community composed of people with mutually exclusive convictions that still chooses to tolerate fundamental differences and work together in common cause.
“Unity” is a choice, not the outcome of a forced conformity coerced from above.
“Our Democracy” is, in the United States, really a Federal Republic unified not around a systematic common ideology but rather by a Constitution that limits the powers and scope of government to protect the inalienable natural rights of its citizens.
“Bullying” is unchecked human aggression defined by an intent to cause harm; it is not the confident expression of variant and dissenting views in the presence of any true believer.
“Safety” is achieved by the choice of most citizens spontaneously to behave in the spirit of our laws in a fashion worthy of freedom, and not by the universal suppression of dissenting views and the disarming of common citizens.
“Obscenity” is not the unfettered expression of most political convictions, but rather is defined by practices antithetical to those naturally evolved practices commonly seen to be humane.
“Child Sexualization & Mutilation” happens when certain ideologically-motivated adults harm innocent children in furtherance of their own extreme social agenda.
“Phobic” describes fear, and not mere disagreement with the most extreme assertions of radical homosexual advocates; it certainly does not describe a bigoted and unreasoning hatred.
“Compassion” is when individuals choose to make helping to mitigate the suffering of others their personal concern; it is not the expansion of a totalitarian government regulating all aspects of our private lives for some common good.
“Dog Whistles” are not hidden messages of irrational hatred couched in otherwise innocuous expressions, but are instead mere accusations designed to induce fearfulness in citizens in order to suppress dissent and chill free speech.
“Cultural Appropriation” is not a “micro-aggression” when people adopt cultural practices, symbols, and artifacts from a heritage foreign to their own bloodlines; rather it is a good sign of the progress of genuinely rich diversity where all people share the best of every know culture in curiosity, joy, and peace.
“Equity” does not mean the American virtue of equality of opportunity but rather the Communist doctrine of equality of result; lowest common denominator outcomes that make all non-elite citizens into equally impoverished slaves.
We must each do our part to reclaim language from those who would distort the meanings of words in order to bludgeon the rest of us into submission.
