On Friday, June 21, 2019 I joined Kim Monson of Americhicks as a guest host on AM 560 KLZ to talk about Colorado Democrats, 1984 and Newspeak. The link to the blog and podcast is here.
This is a timely topic, because politics follows culture, and the Left is busy remaking American culture to facilitate and advance the collectivist, totalitarian agenda they so ardently pursue on so many fronts. Examples of this include Hollywood, which makes movies that glorify Leftist values and denigrates conservatives; the media, which for the most part is openly biased in favor of new wave socialism; the academy, which teaches progressive values and the progressive view of history from kindergarten through graduate school; and the many organizations that exist to promote the progressive agenda, which I call The Progressive Advantage.
To learn more about this topic, of how the Left rose to dominate our culture, I recommend this excellent book by the late Barry Rubin. Titled: Silent Revolution: How the Left Rose to Political Power and Cultural Dominance, you can read my review of it here. Of course, I recommend buying and reading the book. It’s that important.
Here are some additional examples of Newspeak and doublethink employed by the Left:
“Triggering” is when a person is confronted with ideas that make them uncomfortable. By claiming to be “triggered” – which originally meant a negative response to a trauma of some sort – the “victim” can demand the silence of the person or institution presenting the uncomfortable ideas. It’s one way they seek suppression of free speech.
“Justice” – leftists like to append the word “justice” to their policy goals and ideas to give them more perceived moral weight. Examples include
- “Climate Justice” – or government policies to try to halt the natural changes of the Earth’s climate;
- “Reproductive Justice” – or free birth control and taxpayer funded abortion on demand up to the minute before the baby is born;
- “Economic Justice”- or government redistribution programs taking from earners and producers at the point of a gun;
- “Social Justice” – or the redistribution of goods and income, equality of outcome instead of equality of opportunity and freedom from perceived or imagined oppression.
- “Creation Justice” – a leftist Christian organization devoted to…you guessed it – “Climate Justice”.
“Safe Spaces” and “the right to be comfortable” – Orwellian euphemisms for censorship.
Labeling opponents as “racist”, “homophobe” or “bigot”, regardless of the truth or falsity of such accusations. The accused then is compelled to defend against these base charges, instead of defending whatever it is they were proposing or criticizing. It’s both deflection and suppression of free speech.
“Freedom of speech” is only applied to leftist approved speech. Opposing viewpoints must be silenced. How do they silence opposition? By bullying, smearing, ignoring, insulting, and deflection. There are entire groups of people devoted to silencing the opposition on various social media platforms. The leftist “antifa” exists to violently suppress opposing viewpoints.
Embrace of Opposites:
According to progressives, capitalism is evil, when in fact it has lifted more people from poverty than any other socio-economic system in history. Socialism, especially “democratic socialism” is good (in their view) despite the documented fact that hundreds of millions of people have been killed from implementing socialist systems in the 20th century and today’s real-life examples of Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea.
“Antifa” is supposed to be “anti-fascist”, when in fact they are the fascists in their tactics and goals – silencing the free speech of the opposition through rioting, threats of and engaging in physical violence.
The Left’s goal of erasing American history – by removing Confederate statues and how history is taught in public schools is straight out of 1984 and the Ministry of Truth.
Leftists embrace Islam – which punishes homosexuals and oppresses women – while becoming more overtly anti-Semitic and anti-Israel.
Leftists want more laws and more government involvement in all areas of life. But they refuse to follow laws they don’t like.
Leftists claim to be the party of “science” yet abandon science and the scientific method when it comes to climate change, abortion, and biology. Men are women and women are men if they “identify” as such, regardless of biology (which is itself anti-science). One presidential candidate has even stated that biological men have abortion rights too. No, I am not making this up.
Podcast host Andrew Klavan summed it up well in a recent podcast. He said the divide in America wasn’t Left vs Right or Liberal vs Conservative; it is between those of us who support our Founders and the “anti-Founders”. It’s between we who fight to “conserve” the constitutional republic our Founders left us and those who want to destroy it.
There is a concerted effort underway and it has been for over a century to tear down the America that was founded on the timeless principles espoused in the Declaration of Independence and impose a socialist world on us, one where some people are more equal than others, a land without borders where the productive are taxed into oblivion to pay for the indigent. The coming election is the clearest illustration of this yet.
Language and the thought control it implies is just one of many tools in the progressive toolbox. Listen, think, and be aware of the way they use doublethink and Newspeak. Let’s keep 1984 fictional.
By Richard D. Turnquist
July 3, 2019
