Ed. note: Please welcome Vivia Chen back to the pages of Above the Law. Subscribe to her Substack, “The Ex-Careerist,” here.
WHEN I GET TOGETHER FOR DRINKS with my depressed liberal friends, we play a little game. It goes like this: If someone unwittingly displays an elite tendency – like wincing at the idea of eating at Olive Garden or questioning how anyone can sit through Cats – we shout, “And that’s why we lost the election!”
In that spirit, I present to you words and phrases that Democrats should retire forthwith if they ever hope to win back the hearts and minds of Americans. Compiled by liberal think tank Third Way, it’s a memo addressed to “All Who Wish to Stop Donald Trump and MAGA,” listing 45 terms that “no ordinary person would ever dream of saying.”
Here’s a sampling of some of the forbidden terms and their subtext from the memo:
Therapy-Speak. “I’m more empathetic than you, and you are callous to hurting other’s feelings”:
- Privilege
- Violence (as in “environmental violence”)
- Triggering
- Progressive stack
- Body shaming
Seminar Room Language. “I am smarter and more concerned about important issues than you”:
- Systems of oppression
- Cultural appropriation
- Postmodernism
- Overton Window
- Heuristic
Organizer Jargon. “We are beholden to groups, not individuals”:
- Small “d” democracy
- The unhoused
- Food insecurity
- Housing insecurity
Gender/Orientation Correctness. “Your views on traditional genders and gender roles are at best quaint”:
- Cisgender
- Pregnant people
- Chest feeding
- Heteronormative
The Shifting Language of Racial Constructs: “You will be called out as racist if you do not use the latest and correct terminology”:
- Latinx
- Intersectionality
- Allyship
- Minoritized communities
Explaining Away Crime: “The criminal is the victim. The victim is an afterthought”:
- Justice-involved
- Carceration
I THOUGHT I KNEW MY WAY AROUND THE WOKE BLOCK, but some of these terms threw me for a loop: “progressive stack,” “Overton window,” “heuristic,” and “carceration.” And what’s “postmodernism” doing on the list? I thought that was an architectural term. Amazing, isn’t it, that I’ve been writing about gender and race for over two decades without grasping these concepts?
Happily, my main pet peeves are on the list. Winning the competition for sheer ridiculousness are “pregnant people” and “chest feeding.” Yes, yes, I know you can carry a baby and identify as non-binary, but come on. Not to be technical, but you kind of need those lady parts to gestate and lactate.
And what’s with “the unhoused” or “food insecurity” stuff? Do those terms really impart greater dignity to those who are homeless and hungry? If anything, those antiseptic euphemisms detract from the urgency of the problem.
Actually, I’m surprised that Third Way only came up with 45 words and phrases.
Personally, I’d throw in “preferred pronouns” and “land acknowledgements.” I know identifying your pronouns on email signatures shows allyship (another term earmarked for retirement) with the LGBTQ+ community, but it always struck me as coerced virtue signaling. And the ritualized Native American land acknowledgments — now de rigueur at graduation ceremonies in many colleges — seems wholly performative. I know it’s intended to recognize historic injustices, but who’s being comforted? Better to fund scholarships for Native students, though that’s likely a no-go in the current anti-DEI climate.
What brilliant mind came up with this baloney? The well-meaning and the over-thinking, of course. Though the “intent of this language is to include, broaden, empathize, accept, and embrace,” speakers come off as “enforcers of wokeness,” Third Way notes. “To please the few, we have alienated the many — especially on culture issues, where our language sounds superior, haughty and arrogant.”
To that string of adjectives, I’d also add idiotic.
While most liberals I know speak like regular folks, I’ve had my share of run-ins with the language police. And you never know when they’ll strike. “These activists and advocates may take on noble causes,” says Third Way, “but in doing so they often demand compliance with their preferred messages.”
I’ve been chastised by editors and colleagues for not being sufficiently “sensitive” to one group or another in my writing. I can’t tell you how much time has been spent fighting over one silly adjective.
And I get it on the homefront too: My two superbly-educated daughters are constantly on my case for what I say and how I say it. It’s gotten to the point where I actually slow myself down in order to choose the right words before uttering an opinion at the dinner table — and they still treat me as a cultural Neanderthal.
This whole exercise is exhausting. And a royal waste of time. There’s so much focus on terminology that we barely have the bandwidth to get to the crux of the real problems we face.
Maybe JD Vance had a point when he recently advised Democrats on Laura Ingraham’s show on Fox News: “Stop sounding like crazy people!”
Not that the Republicans don’t do crazy talk. Indeed, Donald Trump has not only mangled the English language but vulgarized it to the max. Worse, he’s made it acceptable. While the Democrats contort themselves to avoid any possible offense to anyone under the sun, Trump goes out of his way to do the opposite. His language is studded with racism (Haiti and African nations are “shithole countries“); sexism (Kamala Harris is “dumb as a Rock,” “crazy,” “nuts“); crassness (“grab ’em by the pussy”); and inhumanity (immigrants – “they’re not humans, they’re animals‘). And that’s just a very tiny sampling.
But guess who’s winning the language wars? Though there’s nothing elevating about Trump’s language, give him credit for being direct and pungent; you can literally envision what he is saying. And clarity — especially when people feel unseen — lands as authenticity.
That’s Trump’s secret sauce: speech that feels like it comes straight from the gut, not a seminar. Democrats can dissect the “lived experiences of minoritized communities” but many will be left wondering what was the point.
So the question isn’t just whether liberals can retire their tortured vocabulary. It’s whether they can learn to speak in a language that ordinary people actually hear. Because right now, it’s the crude and cruel version that’s striking a chord with Americans. And that should trouble us all.
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Vivia Chen writes “The Ex-Careerist” column on Substack where she unleashes her unvarnished views about the intersection of work, life, and politics. A former lawyer, she was an opinion columnist at Bloomberg Law and The American Lawyer. Subscribe to her Substack by clicking here:
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