Start Date: January 1, 2016

Since 1976 Lake Superior State College has provided an annual list of words, and expressions, they propose to be banned for excessive use, inappropriate usage, or lack of content, etc. It is all done in good fun. [1]

I would like to add my own list taken from the socio-political genre. These terms are largely used for the benefit of self aggrandizing and tend to come from those who represent the welcoming inclusion that is known as “diversity” and “tolerance”, unless you were to transgress a hair’s width from the approved doctrine. In that case you may consider yourself excommunicated from civil society and expect to be served up to the “hate speech” police.

REFORM

This term is all well enough if left as it stands: Webster defines: “reform” to amend or improve by change of form or removal of faults or abuses. So basically it means to change which is innocuous enough.Then there is the part about making better. But does everyone agree what is better? Obviously you will think that whatever you want to be the final “form” is the best. The has had dangerous implications. Hitler certainly changed the form of Germany, and all Europe for that matter. In his mind and in the minds of enough Germans to carry out his horrific scourge he was able to put his genocidal program forward as “reform”. So you may not wish to have your “reforms” seen in that light. Why not just state what it is you wish to accomplish: make reproductive choice more available, or ban abortions. One man’s (gender neutral here) setback is another’s progress, which brings us to..

PROGRESSIVE

What could be better? Announce yourself as a “progressive” and you have just defined “progress” as agreeing with you. I’ll admit that I too think the world would be a better place if everyone thought as I did, yet I am not quite ready to define it as spiritual dogma.

ACTIVIST

I’ll confess that I do have some mixed feelings about this one. There are indeed people who “do” as opposed to people who talk, think, or not even that. Most of us are the latter. But somehow, someone, particularly some well heeled celebrity, telling you they are an “activist” often seems to just be their way of saying, “I care about people, it’s a shame that you don’t’.” Again I grant there are people who embrace very specific causes and work for them. So if you are volunteering to help bring clean water to poor communities in Africa I guess you can skip the rest of this. But “activists” often have the hint of Benjamin Franklin’s list of areas for self-improvement. He had wanted to make himself a better person and had made a list of qualities to work on. When showing it to a friend to review his progress, the friend pointed to “humility” and indicated that Mr Franklin may need a bit more work in that area. So the next time you wish to identify yourself as an “activist” ask yourself exactly what you are trying to accomplish. If you are busy enough with your cause, anyone who needs to know will likely notice. If not they either don’t need to know or you aren’t as important as you thought.

From the great scholar and economist Thomas Sowell:

“Activism is a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole“ [2]   

Just as a postscript, Ben Franklin was one of the greatest do-ers of the 18th century, but his anecdote is useful.

SOCIAL JUSTICE

The phrase, “social justice” seems to be breathed with a quiet religious fervor or uttered as a call to arms. Who could possibly be against “justice”?  By its very nature it roughly means “do the right thing.” What better way to force your opinions on others than to refer to yours as not only improved (reform, progress) but as THE RIGHT THING. The word justice even hints that it is probably bordering on criminal for someone to not agree with you. But what is “just” may be different from one person to another. So keep working for what you want to achieve but be careful about associating it with the right hand of God, particularly if you wear a clerical collar, as it seems that it is most often that Churches have stepped in to put your soul on the line if you don’t agree with their notions of justice. Given the massive scandals regarding child abuse in the church, it is also worth suggesting that before one claims passion for social justice it should be a prerequisite that you are an adherent to criminal justice and a willing participant to civil justice. Without these there can be no social justice.

UNDOCUMENTED WORKER

This is another recently contrived term. It is intended to be a kinder gentler way of identifying illegal aliens while skipping past the uncomfortable “illegal” aspect. I suppose the term “alien” is a bit creepy and suggestive of beings from a UFO invading Earth. So I would be just fine with illegal migrant. But the illegal part is plain and simple. If you have ever been ticketed, and I have, for an illegal lane change it is not a mortal, nor even venal, sin. It is however deemed illegal as opposed to an undocumented-deviation-from-designated-lane-markers. It is illegal because there is a law against it. Illegal residents are illegal because they entered the country in some way that is a violation of existing laws. I am confident that many of them are fine hard working people and it may benefit our nation for them to be here. The redress for that is to change, with the consent of the majority of the citizenry, the laws for legal immigration. It is not to debate how to get around the illegal nature of illegal immigration or we may as well establish sanctuary for illegal identity theft and illegal tax fraud as those acts often are unfortunate consequences to the initial illegal act. (NOTE: I began this essay in 2016 when those waivers of illegality would still have been troubling)

The other problem with this macro-passive (as opposed to micro-aggressive) phrase is that there is a segment of illegal inhabitants who are neither working nor undocumented. Undocumented worker may apply to an employed person with no arrest record. However there are some among the illegal community who have committed sufficient number of crimes that they have a lengthy documentation for their efforts which do not qualify as work. Tragically there have been numerous victims, particularly women and children, who have been assaulted and murdered by illegal migrants with past criminal convictions and no employment. Their assailants were neither undocumented nor workers.

HATE SPEECH

You have violated my rights by saying something that is offensive to me.

FREE SPEECH

It is my inalienable constitutional right to say something that is offensive to you.

DIVISIVE

The term “divisive” is used as an accusation against people who disagree with the accuser. The act of disagreeing with the other guy is deemed to have created the division. After all if he/she would only agree with me there would be no divide. Then again there would be no diversity. In general, people who make condescending references to “divisive” people are allegedly big fans of diversity, as long as it doesn’t result in anyone differing with them in any way.

“Divisive” is most commonly used to apply to public leaders. Though at some point one has to consider if the followers are the ones choosing to divide. If the metric of “divisive”-ness is the degree of conflict among the subjects of leaders then Abraham Lincoln would have to have been the most divisive American president in history. Roughly half of his citizens seceded from the nation under his leadership. It may have been unavoidable. It may have brought something better after an extraordinary amount of tragedy. But the Civil War he presided over killed 2% of the population of the nation, roughly equivalent to 7 million casualties in 2024 population. So whatever the outcome, he presided over an enormous division, in that the country he led chose to divide itself. There are times when you must make a stand. But take care when ascribing the division to others.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Dogs are a domesticated form of a larger biological entity, canine, which includes wolves who, while beautiful, are less likely to curl up at our feet, go for restrained walks, and wait for food to be placed in a bowl. Dogs are the kinder, gentler version of wolves. Similarly domestic horses can be used by riders for ranch work or entertainment. Wild horses who have not been broken cannot be saddled and directed. Thus the term “domestic” seems to refer to some quaint, genteel civilized form of existence. Yet “domestic” violence in fact involves someone, most commonly a man, beating the crap out of a partner or minor child. When it involves famous athletes there are statements of it being a family matter with best wishes that they work things out. There seems to be a drum beat of colleagues to remind us that “everyone deserves a second chance.” But there is quite simply nothing domestic about physical abuse.

“I TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY”

This is a phrase generally uttered by public figures, most often professional athletes or celebrities, who have done something quite bad such as DUI, beating a woman, sexually assaulting a woman, firing a gun, etc. It all sounds great but what exactly does it mean. In most cases, absolutely nothing.

Addendum: An excellent example of this was the recent case of the secret service failing to protect a former, and perhaps future, American president. A week after a 20 year old was able to shoot the president and at least three rally attendees, one fatally, the head of the agency knew nothing and did nothing. But she insisted “the buck stops here”, etc. Yet her boss, the incumbent (we think) president, didn’t fire her and she declined to fire anyone or resign. The latter did finally come to pass when she achieved concurrence between politicians who truly despise each other, that she was clueless and useless.

“WE CONDEMN IN THE STRONGEST POSSIBLE TERMS”

This is a term generally uttered in political context in response to actions taken by foreign entities. Sometimes this actually means that weapons are being launched, troops deployed, etc. When applied to the 2014 Russian invasion of Crimea or the Syrian massacre of it’s people it has had the same result as ‘I take full responsibility” in that it meant ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

“WE WILL NOT TOLERATE”

This is really the watered down (or is it up?) version of “we condemn in the strongest possible terms”. With the local and present L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, it has been used in the wake of massive flash mob robberies in malls, street takeovers, and assaults on Jews at synagogues. The only problem is that they, in fact, do very much tolerate these things. If it wasn’t tolerated it wouldn’t continue to happen, and yet it does.

DISCLOSURE

Just for the record I don’t truly believe in banning speech. But we live in a time where public commentary has gone from the usual hyperbole to extreme abuses beyond those addressed in the this post. Think of anything that ends in “-ist” or “-phobic”. Perhaps we need to take more care to define our terms.

REFERENCES

[1] https://www.lssu.edu/traditions/banishedwords/

[2] https://www.azquotes.com/author/13901-Thomas_Sowell/tag/activism#google_vignette