That happened in 2008 as Barack Obama ran for president promising strong federal action against “systemic” inequality and in favor of social justice.
I thought it a little presumptuous at the time, implying that only Democrats favored progress. But the term quickly caught on and so I relaxed, assuming it would soon disappear.
Instead, the rhetorical voodoo spread like wildfire. Mothers-to-be became “pregnant people,” convicted prisoners became “justice-involved,” mental patients became “neurodivergent,” and those who were starving became “food insecure.” Not to mention, of course, men were called “she,” women “he” and—my all-time favorite—individuals “they.”
That one still makes me cringe.
Then Donald Trump got elected and, mincing no words, vowed to turn it all around. Which has thrown Democrats into disarray, prompting hand-wringing debates on what went wrong.
“Some words are just too Ivy League,” Sen. Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat, recently told the Washington Post in an article headlined ‘Democratic troubles revive debate over left-wing buzzwords.’
“I’m going to piss some people off by saying this,” he went on, “but ‘social equity’—why do we say that? Why don’t we say, ‘We want you to have an even chance’?”
Added Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear: “It makes Democrats…sound like they’re not normal.”
At the risk of pissing people off myself, let me just suggest that it’s not about being Ivy-League smart as much as Ivy-League brainwashed. By which I mean that reinventing the language has more to do with furthering a political agenda than with communicating clearly or truthfully.
In a word, here’s the underlying ideology: everyone is not only equal but the same, people are whatever they say they are, and no remaining differences should be construed to imply inequality or give offense. Except, of course, if you’re talking about Donald Trump or those who deign to support him.
The only problem with all this is that it reflects a world nonexistent except in the minds of progressives.
Don’t get me wrong, I do not—nor would I ever—advocate or encourage unwarranted rudeness of any kind. Nor do I support discrimination irrelevant to whatever task is at hand. At the same time, however, I recognize that making judgements is human. And that, except for racial or ethnic discrimination usually prohibited by law, the freedom to judge others is here to stay.
Or so I hope.
I spend most of my time these days in the Philippines where I certainly make judgements regarding Filipinos. Among them: they are sometimes disorganized, eat foods I wouldn’t touch, and don’t always arrive on time. I also believe most Filipinos are hardworking, good-hearted, and kind.
And yet, rather than base relationships on those generalizations, I base them on the traits and behaviors each Filipino exhibits. Which, I believe, is how most of us, most of the time, manage most relationships.
The genuine surprise, though, is just how quickly the new woke language caught on. Almost overnight, it seemed, genders became “assigned” at birth and “fluid” thereafter numbering at least 72 including non-binary, agender, and cisgender. Addiction became “substance abuse disorder,” the head of a committee became its “chairperson” rather than chairman or chairwoman, Latinos and Latinas became “Latinx,” and the Philippines became an “emerging economy” rather than a third-world or developing country.
The reason for the rapid change was obvious: its wide-ranging promulgation by mainstream media, most employees of which identity as progressives. And yet the pendulum seems to be swinging back. One recent survey suggested that only 20% of Americans regularly use the most common woke term, “safe space.” And other well-known terms of enlightenment received even fewer endorsements.
The proof of the pudding, of course, is the ascension of Donald Trump.
“It sounds simple,” Gov. Beshear repeated to the Post, “but what the Democratic Party needs is to…sound normal.”
To which I can only add, hey, good luck with that.
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David Haldane is an award-winning American journalist and author with homes in Southern California and Northern Mindanao. His latest book, Dark Skies: Tales of Turbulence in Paradise, is available on Amazon. This column appears regularly in The Manila Times.
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