George Orwell once wrote 'If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.' This quote is not in his novels Animal Farm or 1984, his most often cited works. Orwell wrote this many years before those books in an essay entitled Politics and the English Language.
It is important to remember this piece because Orwell accurately notes that language is the most critical casualty of crooked and lying politics. And if language is corrupted, then everything is corrupted.
People on the left, in reference to 'preferred pronouns,' like to trot out the tired questions, 'Why can't you just call people what they want to be called? Why do you have to be mean?' This is duplicitous. It is preying on people's natural inclination to want to be nice and to be left alone. So, they give in.
Or at least they used to. People are waking up now to the truth that if words stop meaning things, then reality stops meaning anything.
People are also waking up because they have realized that the leftist (aka, Marxists) will never be satisfied if you just accommodate a few whims here and there for the sake of politeness. They will always keep pushing, keep asking us to deny reality. That is how they believe they will win. And we can't let them.
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A remarkable case in point regarding language has now come out from the Saline School District in Saline, Michigan. There, the 'Executive Director of Teaching and Learning' (we don't know what that title means either) Kara Davis has taken the 'politeness' request to grotesque new levels, 'asking' the school staff to stop using the words 'girl' and 'boy.'
SCOOP: Kara Davis, the ‘Executive Director of Teaching and Learning’ at @SalineSchools sent an email to staff notifying them that they can no longer use the terms “boy/girl” because gendered language can be harmful to students.
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 20, 2024
These are the people in charge of your kids’… pic.twitter.com/kIXatzGy16
Personally, I doubt that Davis has ever read Orwell at all, let alone his essays, but if she has, she is using them as a playbook, not a warning.
Notice the language she uses in her memo to the staff members. She's 'confident that all staff members want to create the best experience possible and would NEVER intentionally exclude students...'
This is treacherous bullying, nothing less. She knows she is in charge, and that teachers are required to do what she says. But she couches it in her 'inclusive' language. Again, 'Why can't you just do everything I ask of you? Why are you being mean? You don't want to be mean or -- GASP -- 'exclusionary,' do you?'
Notice also how she calls the words boys and girls 'historically accurate.' It really does not get more diabolical than this.
Of course, to a Marxist, history is bunk. They have no problem erasing it. On the contrary, that is their aim.
'Boys and girls' is not just 'historically accurate.' It is scientifically accurate, it is biologically accurate, it is common sense accurate, it is REALITY accurate. And that's why she wants to change it.
Then, of course, comes the ultimatum: you may NOT use 'boys and girls' anymore. You must remove all references to sex and call them only 'students' or 'visitors.' Otherwise, it is 'causing harm.'
SHE ACTUALLY SUGGESTS USING NUMBERS TO DESIGNATE GROUPS OF STUDENTS.
My apologies for shouting there, but I mean ... holy sh*t. She said that.
Because applying numbers to large groups of people doesn't have any kind of evil precedent, does it?
Exact opposite of inclusion - believing that calling kids “boy” or “girl” is harmful.
— Anna Hoffman (@shoesonplease) May 20, 2024
Saline Schools, which neighbors Ann Arbor, was the family friendly alternative for years. 10% of Saline students have left for private or homeschool options since 2020. This is why. https://t.co/RWqlruhZYm
There is nothing 'inclusive' about what Davis is saying here. It is ONLY destructive, like anything else related to DEI (and yes, if you haven't guessed yet, Saline School District does have a DEI department).
Parents are right to remove their children from this toxic environment. There are only two options: remove ALL students from these schools, or remove Davis and everyone like her from any position of authority.
At some point wilfully blind stupidity reaches criminal proportions
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) May 20, 2024
We're long past that on the gender fronthttps://t.co/E5sqEvvPhj
Just about everything the gender cult does is borderline criminal, if not outright felonious. People can not afford to be wilfully blind anymore, not when children are at stake.
These losers have nothing but word salad. https://t.co/1LshZ3Auar
— Ultra Maga Dee Dee 311 (@Lilmsdangrus311) May 20, 2024
While it is tempting to call Davis' memo 'word salad,' that is dangerous. Her memo is specifically clear when it comes to telling people what to do. And she will make sure there are consequences for those who refuse. The 'word salad' is only meant to disguise the very pointed -- and very evil -- directive.
As we have seen at our service academies, they "Teaching and Learning" departments are used as the pointy end of political indoctrination by the leftist word police. https://t.co/JZHGpRIJFT
— cdrsalamander (@cdrsalamander) May 20, 2024
Yes, this is another disguise. To trot out Orwell again, there is no difference between Davis calling herself an 'Executive Director of Teaching and Learning' and a government agency in charge of propaganda, lies, and language control calling itself the 'Ministry of Truth.'
(Side note for parents: If your child's teacher calls himself or herself a 'teacher,' that's a good sign. If he or she calls themselves an 'educator'? Gigantic red flag. Huge.)
Kara Davis should be fired immediately on the grounds of child abuse and science denier! @SalinaSchools @JesseBWatters @FoxNews @TheLeoTerrell @GOPSenate @RandPaul @Jim_Jordan @bennyjohnson @MattWalshBlog @charliekirk11 @EpochTimes @ACLJ @theblaze @RealAlexJones @Local4News… https://t.co/pptir7GB4j
— SparkyBru (@SparkyBru) May 20, 2024
A person like Davis should not be in charge of ANYTHING of significance, but least of all, children and education. Her objective is not education, but indoctrination.
Another word for this is 'grooming.'
Woke white women continue to be a scourge upon children… https://t.co/lM1U8QjQiE
— EducatëdHillbilly™ (@RobProvince) May 20, 2024
'Woke' almost seems like it's too kind of a word anymore. I just call them Marxists. It has the benefit of accuracy.
These Deranged People Like Kara Davis Do NOT Belong Anywhere Near The School Systems!! They Are Poison!!! https://t.co/5giyGWXCVC
— Norma Gilbert (@normagilbert54) May 20, 2024
'Poison' is another accurate term.
Not even a generation ago, someone like Davis would have been laughed out of a school district almost immediately for a memo of this nature. She almost certainly will not be now in Saline, Michigan. Because the Marxist takeover of language is insidious.
What she is writing here may seem crazy to many of us. It does to me, and I know it does to every Twitchy reader. But it probably does not by people who have been softened to deny reality over the years by similar attempts to destroy the meaning of words. 'Preferred' pronouns. Saying 'men' can get pregnant. Dictionaries re-defining the words 'man' and 'woman.' It all adds up.
This is what they do. In the words of another famous Marxist who wreaked a lot of destruction in his time, 'You probe with bayonets: if you find mush, you push. If you find steel, you withdraw.'
Vladimir Lenin was evil, but he wasn't wrong. The left in America has been pushing on language for decades and far too often, all they have found is mush. So people like Kara Davis just keep on pushing.
It's high time we made them encounter steel.
