Unspeak

The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible. — George Orwell

When our lives are filled with wicked problems, it can be comforting to believe that we have sufficient mastery of the complex world, that there’s some certainty to attach our wagons to. Part of that work is linguistic, adopting language that sounds explanatory but is actually just soothing, like an incantation. Along with “common sense,” there are a lot of other contemporary phrases that do the same work of compressing complexity, disregarding difference, flattening expertise, demeaning others, and closing off conversation.

Any effort to see that the whole world doesn’t conform to white heterosexual male experience is written off as Woke. The full phrase is “woke bullshit,” which is the equivalent of sticking one’s fingers in one’s ears and shouting “la la la I can’t HEAR you.”

Any effort to point out that what the President is doing might be illegal, opposed to the principles of democracy, or part of a long career of money laundering for oligarchs, is attributed to Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Any woman or person of color in a job or a seat in college is labeled a DEI/Diversity Hire, (My favorite meme of the moment is that the essence of DEI hires are Don Jr, Eric, and Ivanka, all of whom were clearly promoted through something other than merit.)

Any attempt to place boundaries on the most rapacious forms of economic exploitation is Socialist/socialism.

Experts who know what they’re doing, who happen to work for a government agency, are the Deep State.

We can go on. Patriotism is the belief that only American interests are legitimate, and that it’s easy to know exactly what “American interests” are. (I mean, it’s just common sense, right?) Government Waste is any program that doesn’t benefit the speaker personally, God’s Will is a shorthand for “my opinion, with a club in its hand,” and a Mandate is the inevitability of the Emperor’s wishes.

Part of the work of these short-circuiting terms, like “common sense,” is just meeting the demands of low attention, the equivalent of tl;dr. But the bigger function is to end the feeling of being harangued by uncomfortable facts, to close the door to complexity or compromise or mutuality.

Yet more tomorrow.