We have to change the words people use, say progressives, liberals, and leftists, in order to protect democracy, freedom, and the vulnerable. In the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says health and medical workers should refer to “people with undocumented status” and not “illegal immigrants.” We should refer to “people with obesity,” not “the obese,” says The American Medical Association. “Alien” is “an offensive term for a human being,” believes California Governor Gavin Newsom, who signed a 2021 law eliminating it from being used in the state’s laws. In 2022, progressive New York lawmakers replaced the word “inmate” with “incarcerated individual” in the state’s statutes. The Associated Press Stylebook, which most American newsrooms follow, tells reporters to avoid “the dehumanizing collective noun the homeless” and to refer to trans-identified men as “transgender women” and trans-identified women as “transgender men.”
The same is true across the West. Britain’s Green Party recently issued an “Inclusive Terminology Guidance” that instructs its members to stop using words like “mothers and fathers,” “elderly,” “able-bodied,” “youngster,” “sexual preference,” “nutter,” or “lunatic.” The goal is to “avoid language which is harmful to people with mental health conditions.” A video of a parliamentary debate in Wales went viral after showing candidates trying and failing to use the word “blanket” when referring to a new speed limit law. Currently, policymakers in the United States, Britain, France, the European Union, and Australia are all seeking sweeping new controls over what people can say online, while the latter is seeking to use anonymous accounts, known as sock puppets or bots, to propagate government information. And German politicians are now seeking to use AI to automatically monitor X, YouTube, and Instagram for ideas considered dangerous.
