Campus revolutionaries warping words

The hypocrisy is blinding. The game is but an old one, yet extremely effective. The funding for the activity is endless courtesy of the federal behemoth. Victor Davis Hanson, in this article of late titled “Words Matter: How to Twist Language for Political Gain,” points out that the “rules of language” are being subverted by campus revolutionaries for political ends. Davis makes several points, which I distill below.

Sanctuary cities are nothing but a retest of the “nullification” of federal law. The supremacy clause forbids local and state law to conflict with federal law. Davis notes that “sanctuary city” is a euphemism and that the term would never be applied in the leftist world to jurisdictions that might seek shelter by conservatives from things such as federal gun or environmental laws. The university crowds crow about “divisive” and “polarizing” election results, yet in 2008 and 2012, the results were not “polarizing” or “divisive” because the leftists’ candidate won. No concern for demoralized conservative students and their fear of a “transformed America” at the hands of Barack Obama. Campus “safe spaces” and “theme houses” filter their attendees based on race and gender. Curious behavior from the warm and fuzzy color- and gender-blind left. “Microagressions,” Hanson observes, are more a stifling of free speech and thought, in which the person is “branded” with charges of sexism or racism in instances that would normally offer no offense, except when “arcane inventions of bias” are applied. “Trigger warnings,” which warn the reader of potential obscene or threatening content, are applied only when “deemed potentially hurtful or unfair by 21st-century progressive standards of race, class and gender.” Davis notes that it is unlikely that the proper and accepted inflammatory works of Malcolm X or Eldridge Cleaver would carry such warnings. “Illegal alien” is so counterproductive to the open border movement that it has taken on a new meaning and is forbidden. The terms dealing with “illegal aliens” have morphed through stages including “undocumented immigrant” to merely “migrant.” The suggestion now is that “there really is no difference between entering and exiting a country under any circumstances.” The hypocrisy is thick, but the slant is clear. In Hanson’s words, “[t]o prevent the endless cycle of corrupting words, members of the media and academia should act as our linguistic guardians. Instead, for short term political gain, they have abandoned their professional responsibilities to become our worst subverters of language.” Unfortunately, corruption of words is not the only hobby of leftist academia. The academicians instruct what to think rather than how, deny open and polite discussion, and forbid opposing views all while adhering to rules for “radicals” but cuddling in the antonym of “progressive.” Yes, the hypocrisy is thick and the words contorted.