Category Archives: Newspeak Dictionary

Microsoft Political Correctness Checker

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Just when you thought woke scolds could not possibly become any more intrusive, Microsoft embeds a political correctness checker in Word:

When switched on, spelling mistakes are underlined in red, grammar errors in blue and “inclusiveness” issues in purple. …

The checker can be turned on and off in a menu called “Grammar & Refinements”, which lists everything it checks: Age bias, Cultural bias, Ethnic slurs, Gender bias, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Gender-Specific Language, Racial Bias, Sexual Orientation Bias and Socioeconomic Bias.

Examples:

Users who write “Mrs Thatcher” are told it “may imply gender bias” and are prompted to change it to the supposedly less offensive “Ms Thatcher”.

And the phrase astronaut Neil Armstrong uttered when he became the first person on the moon is not deemed acceptable.

Rather than “one giant leap for mankind”, he should have said “humankind” or “humanity”.

The word “mankind” is deemed thoughtcrime by our Big Tech overlords.

It also proposes changing “maid” — used for centuries to describe female housekeepers — to “house cleaner”.

Others to change include “headmaster” (Word suggests “principal”), “mistress” (“lover”), “master” (“expert”), “manpower” (“workforce”) and “heroine” (“hero”).

The aptly named digital strategist John Bull praises the political correctness checker:

“Your spellchecker will now help you to start overcoming your subconscious biases. It’s a brilliant feature.”

The allegedly brilliant feature is included in the latest version of Office 365. Future versions might provide electric shocks through the keyboard to those who type words that have been deleted from the Newspeak Dictionary, the better to cure us of our subconscious biases.

On a tip from Mr. Freemarket.

Campus Concerts, Outdoor Recreation Revealed as Racist

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Even now, whiteness festers in pockets where it has not yet been hunted down and extirpated by the forces of social justice. Two more havens for whiteness have been exposed: campus concerts and outdoor recreation.

Via the Washington Examiner:

The student newspaper at an Ohio college known for its left-leaning politics published a column decrying the number of white students attending campus concerts.

“When there are so few resources for non-white students on campus, it can be upsetting when concerts headlined by artists of color are dominated by white students,” wrote Kayla Kim, a first-year student at Oberlin College.

Kayla finds it hurtful that majority white students displace black students from the front row at such events. No doubt Democrats will introduce federal legislation to address the crisis of white people hogging up front rows.

As for outdoor recreation, Brittany Hughes breaks the news that it too is infested with racist whiteness:

Please note that the word “carabiner” is to be removed from the list of permissible vocabulary because it reminds the thought police of the slang term “Beaner.” Update your copy of the Newspeak Dictionary accordingly.

On tips from Dragon’s Lair and Occam’s Stubble.

European Commission’s Newspeak Dictionary

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A favorite aspect of George Orwell’s 1984 among leftists is the concept of limiting thought by limiting language. This was picked up in the 1960s by French postmodernists and from there became a bedrock principle of critical theory, the umbrella ideology of our leftist ruling class. Europe’s rulers have even created their own equivalent of Orwell’s Newspeak Dictionary. They call it Guidelines on Inclusive Communication. The following rules are among the many to be “followed at all times”:

Never use gendered nouns such as ‘workmen, policemen’ or masculine pronouns (he, his) as a default.

In English, “he” is used in to mean “he or she.” Not in Newspeak though. In English, “workpersons” sounds preposterous and sets off the spell checker. In Newspeak, it showcases the speaker’s political correctness.

Never address an audience as ‘ladies and gentlemen’ but use expressions such as ‘Dear colleagues’.

There may be moonbats present who are neither ladies nor gentlemen.

When addressing trans people, always respect self-identification.

That is, subordinate objective biological reality to radical LGBT ideology.

Do not use terms with a negative connotation such as ‘suffering from HIV’, ‘suffering from autism’, ‘wheelchair-bound’ (use ‘with HIV’, ‘with autism’, ‘wheelchair user’ instead).

It would be stigmatizing to imply that there is anything negative about having the virus that causes AIDS.

Be sure to study the entire manual carefully lest you commit a speechcrime, keeping in mind that just because everyone has used a given expression for centuries is no reason to assume that it is currently acceptable.

The guide provides helpful reminders like this:

[I]f we always portray mothers as child-carers, we perpetuate harmful stereotypes.

Only a thought criminal would be exclusive of mothers who choose to abandon their children.

Another reminder is particularly appropriate for this time of year. Never say “Christmas.” Until it has been abolished completely, refer to it only as an unspecified “holiday.” The word “Christmas” is an obscenity in Newspeak.

Refer to the Vigilant Citizen for more on this version of the Newspeak Dictionary, as well as other key Newspeak updates. Remember: let slip a word that has been canceled and you yourself may be canceled.

On tips from Greg O and Blackjack.

Looting Is Not Looting

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The George Floyd Memorial Riots enshrined looting as a civil right. Combine it with the leftist lunatics who run California decriminalizing shoplifting and the inevitable result has been an epidemic of smash and grab robberies, often involving large numbers of criminals. But we must not refer to these activities as “looting,” according to Bay Area ABC affiliate KGO-TV:

Race and Social Justice Reporter Julian Glover is here to give us some context of looting.

Millions of dollars’ worth of luxury goods have been looted in the San Francisco area during the current crime wave.

But according to the California Penal Code, what we saw was not looting.

The penal code defines looting as “theft or burglary…during a ‘state of emergency’, ‘local emergency’, or ‘evacuation order’ resulting from an earthquake, fire, flood, riot or other natural or manmade disaster.”

California has succumbed to liberalism to such an extreme that the authorities are no longer willing or able to protect private property. But for some reason that doesn’t count as a manmade disaster.

To some, the distinction may be small, but Lorenzo Boyd, PhD, Professor of Criminal Justice & Community Policing at the University of New Haven, and a retired veteran police officer, emphasized that words matter.

“Looting is a term that we typically use when people of color or urban dwellers are doing something. We tend not to use that term for other people when they do the exact same thing,” said Boyd.

Therefore, to use the term “looting” is racist against looters. That makes the person who says “looters” the criminal. The looters themselves are not criminals, because according to the Black Lives Matter ideology ostentatiously embraced by the liberal establishment, looters are only collecting reparations for injustices that occurred generations before they were born.

Calling the looting after Katrina “looting” is racist too:

Martin Reynolds, Co-executive director of the Robert C. Maynard Institute of Journalism Education thinks back to Hurricane Katrina, when largely Black New Orleans residents were labeled looters for crimes of survival – stealing water, food, and supplies before federal government aid arrived.

Liquor stores were particularly hard hit by these “crimes of survival.”

When you update your Newspeak Dictionary, no need to delete the word “loot” entirely. Just make a note that it must only be used if those responsible are white.

On tips from AintYerPa and Dragon’s Lair.

Term “Trigger Warning” Canceled; Might Trigger Snowflakes

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The coddling of liberal snowflakes who must be isolated from anything that challenges their childish worldview has reached a new extreme of self-parody at England’s Warwick University, which has canceled the term “trigger warning” lest the warning itself trigger wokesters.

The term “content notes” will be used instead when warning that the material in literature and drama classes may not be in total compliance with current standards of political correctness. “Trigger warning” is now regarded as “provocative” — probably because it has been used to ridicule moonbats who become unglued at the revelation that someone somewhere at some time in the past deviated from wokeness. Naturally, it has had the opposite effect by inviting more ridicule:

Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: ‘Warwick’s decision to take offence at the word trigger is ludicrous. How is this preparing students for a life in the outside world? Who is actually calling for these trigger or content warnings? Is it resilient young people or woke-afflicted academics? …

‘When I attended university it was to be educated and prepared for the world of work. It now appears our universities are preparing their students for a world of woke.’

“Content notes” read like this:

Studying literature necessarily involves confronting particular ideas, words and experiences that you might find offensive, upsetting, or disturbing. All of the modules you take in the department will involve material that can be difficult for some people, even traumatic.

Shakespeare provides a more suitable alternative for preparing liberal militants to have their horizons broadened:

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

The Bard’s own work has been subjected to trigger warnings in academia. So has 1984, which introduced the concept of the Newspeak Dictionary. The term “trigger warning” will be excised from the next edition.

On tips from Dragon’s Lair and AintYerPa.

Sex Offender Board Cancels Term “Sex Offender”

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Updates to the Newspeak Dictionary will continue until utopia has been achieved — i.e., until no one championed by Democrats is ever offended by anything. Now the Colorado Sex Offender Management Board has canceled the term “sex offender” lest it offend sex offenders. Instead, these precious snowflakes are to be referred to as “adults who commit sexual offenses.”

The Federalist reports:

The board’s decision passed following a 10-6 vote on Nov. 19 will not change the language used in criminal justice proceedings, the Colorado Sex Offender registry, or the name of the Colorado Sex Offender Management Board itself. It does, however, apply to the “Standards and Guidelines for the Assessment, Evaluation, Treatment and Behavioral Monitoring of Adult Sex Offenders.”

The purpose is to destigmatize sex criminals. Seriously:

The rationale for the language shift is reducing stigma against those convicted of sex crimes, with the Denver Post claiming “many attorneys, people on the sex offender registry and even some victims have criticized Colorado’s management of this population as overly harsh and counterproductive to the goal of rehabilitation.”

I doubt the Denver Post regards the appalling treatment of Kyle Rittenhouse overly harsh. Sex criminals (e.g., liberal martyr Joseph Rosenbaum) have the sympathy of the progressive establishment. Decent kids trying to protect people’s property from leftist rioters do not.

Also in Colorado, Democrat State Representative Kerry Tipper has tried to get the phrase “sexually violent predator” erased from state law.

But it is still okay with liberals to call Rittenhouse a “a little murderous white supremacist” for resisting Black Lives Matter rioters.

Progressive preferences are also reflected at the national level:

These rhetorical changes mimic those that were present in the Centers for Disease Control’s woke language guide. That also exchanged terms like inmate and prisoner for “people who are incarcerated or detained.” Criminal was changed to “people in pre-trial or with charge” or “people who were formerly incarcerated.”

Newspeak can get a little wordy.

Meanwhile, others work to destigmatize pedophilia.

On tips from Blackjack and AintYerPa.

Destigmatized Prison Inmates Now to Be Called “Residents”

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When utopia is achieved, prisons will be abolished. Criminals will run free in accordance with Black Lives Matter demands, and those who don’t like it will be incarcerated in reeducation camps for being racists. In the meantime, don’t forget to call convicts “residents” so as not to hurt their feelings.

From Wisconsin:

Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett said staff at the Dane County Jail in Madison will no longer refer to those in jail as ‘inmates’ and will instead address them as ‘residents’ or ‘those within our care,’ the sheriff announced Monday. …

‘As we serve, we want to maintain dignity and respect for all who are involved in our criminal justice system,’ Barrett said. ‘We will no longer refer to our incarcerated community members as ‘inmates’. Their new title will be ‘resident(s)’ or ‘those within our care.’

The story is monotonously familiar. Authorities make fools of themselves while scurrying to obey left-wing activist groups:

Barrett said he met with a group of formerly incarcerated individuals at the nonprofit Nehemiah Center for Urban Leadership Development, who told him being referred to as ‘inmates’ or ‘convicts’ increases stigma against them…

Liberals deliberately destigmatized welfare, with the predictable result that there are already 1 million more job openings than job applicants. Now they are destigmatizing crime. Every step they take is toward the ruin of society.

On tips from Thom67 and KirklesWorth.