The Big Brother of George Orwell’s “1984” was not content to simply police his subjects; he had to convert them. By changing the language from English to Newspeak, “In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.”
But what if the masses aren’t buying it?
This week, the New York Times published an online quiz of “offensive” words, with an accompanying poll of 4,000 adults asking them which terms they would or would not use. We wonder if the results are what the Times expected.
The most rejected word was “chestfeeding,” which we apparently must use because a minuscule number of people may exist who identify as men but still have the biology to wean a child: 90% of respondents say they wouldn’t use that word, while 85% say they would use “breastfeeding.”
“Birthing parent”: 66% say no, while 86% say yes to “pregnant woman.”
Only 22% use “Latinx,” an invented gender-neutral word that even liberal politicians say is nonsense (“When Latino politicos use the term, it is largely to appease white rich progressives who think that is the term we use,” said Ruben Gallego, a Democratic congressman from Arizona). “Latino” and “Latina” are used by 70%.
The cherry on top of this exercise? One of the headlines used in the piece says, “Despite the panic on the right, few have stopped using ‘woman.’”
The panic on the right! As if it wasn’t the Times and progressives pushing this Newspeak in the first place.
As usual, the left takes a radical position — erasing gender — then, when faced with resistance, frames it as “conservatives are outraged.” No, as this poll shows, the majority of Americans are not on board with this effort to warp the language to ideological ends. This isn’t panic. It’s common sense fighting back.