Socialist Semantics

“When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just when and what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less. ' 'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things. ' 'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master — that's all.”  (With apologies to Lewis Carroll.)

George Rebane

We talk past each other because we share no common logic, reasoning, history, facts, …, and yes, no common semantics.  One side demands to know what words mean during a dialogue or debate, the other side wants to avoid such revelations at all costs.  This has been clear since at least the early days of the Bolshevik Revolution, because for the Left history is in a constant state of political and ideological revision.  The role of any given word today may have to change markedly tomorrow when responding to unforeseen events or opportunities.

We recognize socialism as one of the prominent limbs of collectivism, a form of that overarching ideology that readily can morph into communism or one of many less-formalized forms of totalitarianism.  The common denominator of all these is that the individual derives value only to the extent that he succumbs to and supports the regime in power, all others are cast into various groups of traitors, seditionists, insurrectionists, and other repressed kinds of ‘counter-revolutionaries’.  Today in America we see and already experience harbingers of such class categorizations by the ascendant Left and their lamestream media.

As examples, none on the Left can or will give the public any stable or even conditionally stable definitions of their workaday pejoratives like ‘racist’, ‘nationalist’, ‘white supremacist’, ‘fascist’, ‘deplorables’, ‘sexist’, ‘misogynist’, … , and terms such as ‘white privilege’, ‘white nationalism’, ‘equality’, ‘equity’, ‘racial preference’, … , and of course ‘sedition’ and ‘insurrection’.

Such use of slippery semantics by the Left occurs at all levels of our society ranging from the federal government all the way down to our local leftwing worthies who comment on RR.  Examples of these abound.  On one end, we refer you to today’s attempt by Biden to end-run Congress on gun control and the Second Amendment collected under the undefined rubric of ‘gun violence’.  Any reasonable view of his “six initial actions” (here) reveals that nowhere does he define or point to definitions of such key terms as ‘ghost guns’ and ‘assault weapon’, or the scope of his proposed nationalized ‘red flag’ law.  Everyone on both sides knows that the objective here is to enable another major ratchet on restricting the constructive use and ownership of firearms, therefore definitions always need to be malleable.

On the local level a leftwing worthy continues to echo (here) the Left’s Big Lie that the 6jan21 storming of the Capitol, enabled by an incompetently led and permissive cadre of Capitol Police, was an “insurrection”.  I countered with my habitual attempt to uncover the Left’s pernicious use of language by citing the classical definition of insurrection.  (See also the RR ‘Glossary & Semantics’ and ‘A Conservetarian Credo’.)  The only response that our leftwinger could muster was to accuse me of hiding behind semantics, the correct use of the English language – to wit, “… semantics, the weakest of all responses to be used only when you have nothing else to say.”  There was no need for anyone to say anything more in that case than to point out the man’s egregious use of language.  Yet, at a loss for a wider access to vocabulary, he then demanded what I would call the 6jan21 event at the Capitol.

Well, since there was no evidence whatsoever of any preparation or execution of actions to overturn our sitting government and replace it with one waiting in the wings, I would call the penetration of the building a spontaneous civil disobedience, a mob action, or even a directionless and chaotic riot by a frustrated crowd.  To confirm this, the investigations launched in response have not been able to find evidence for anything more sinister and/or organized that occurred on that day. Yet it was an event which daily our Democrats still attempt to inflame and divide Americans by equating it to the 7dec41 and 11sep01 ‘days of infamy’.  Here we see one more subversion of semantics by the Left, as they broadcast propaganda at its best and most effectively against intellectually defenseless people burdened by being educated in progressive public schools.

Comments

[Walt]

A good example of socialist semantics.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/04/08/biden-atf-nominee-david-chipman-spread-blue-anon-conspiracy-theories-waco/

"David Chipman, His Fraudulency Joe Biden’s nominee to head the ATF, has spread wild-eyed, Blue Anon conspiracy theories about the 1993 Waco siege.

During a Reddit AMA (ask me anything) last year, Chipman, a former ATF special agent and current senior policy adviser at [Gabrielle] Giffords Courage to Fight Gun Violence organization, told this outrageous and provable lie:

At Waco, cult members used 2 .50 caliber Barretts to shoot down two Texas Air National Guard helicopters. Point, it is true we are fortunate they are not used in crime more often. The victims of drug lords in Mexico are not so lucky. America plays a role in fueling the violence south of the border.

That is some first-class, Blue Anon bullshit right there."

No chopper was shot down with .50 cals

No I gotta hand it to BB... "Blue-anon" Has a real good ring to it.

[Robert]

Reminds me of Peter from Family Guy on the game show “Password” and his partner was Tony Randall. The password was flaming. Peter giving the clue, “you”. Actor, replies Tony. Peter “youuu”. Star, says Tony...Peter sighs and drags out once again youuuuu....

[Don Bessee]

Semantics or just another lie? -

Biden administration announces sky-high border numbers, looks to blame Trump
Nearly 19,000 unaccompanied children were encountered in March, the highest recorded.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-sky-high-border-numbers-blame-trump-administration

;-)

[Barry Pruett]

There are many words lacking in the liberal/communist dictionary. Among them...patriotism, divine, providence, virtue, freedom, heritage, love, truth, personal responsibility, family....

[Barry Pruett]

1984 was a warning and not an instruction manual. Lol.

https://owlcation.com/humanities/The-Meaning-of-War-is-Peace-Freedom-is-Slavery-and-Ignorance-is-Strength-in-Orwells-1984

[Walt]

Gotta love that tax and spend.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/04/09/joe-biden-releases-1-52-trillion-budget-proposal-partisan-pork-projects/

"Biden’s budget requests a 16 percent increase in domestic spending from 2021, including a 41 percent increase for the Department of Education, a 28 percent increase for the Department of Commerce, and a 23.5 percent increase for the Department of Health and Human Services.

That includes $1.7 billion for “energy-saving retrofits” of schools, homes, and federal buildings, and $600 million for electric vehicles and charging stations for federal agencies. It also requests more than $10 billion in “clean energy” innovation. The request also calls for $936 million in spending toward a new Accelerating Environmental and Economic Justice Initiative at the Environmental Protection Agency."

[Bill Tozer]

Good question.

IS RACE DISCRIMINATION LEGAL, OR NOT?
We live in a world in which race discrimination is ubiquitous. Universities, government agencies and all major employers systematically discriminate in favor of some races, and against others, under the banner of “affirmative action.” This has been going on for 50 years. And yet, the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection has been applied to ban race discrimination by public entities in a number of contexts. Similarly, the Civil Rights Act purports to bar race discrimination in employment and public accommodations. Such discrimination in employment is nevertheless pretty much universal; see, e.g., United Airlines’ recent declaration of its intent to discriminate for just one of many thousands of instances. I have no idea what the operative legal principles are.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/04/is-race-discrimination-legal-or-not.php

[Scott O]

Bill T 7:56 - "IS RACE DISCRIMINATION LEGAL, OR NOT?"
Just to ask that question is probably 'racist'.
The whole 'race' issue has become a weapon the left uses to suit whatever end they seek.
If there is a body of people that have power of some sort (economic, political, social, etc) and the left can't control it, then the left will seek to control that body by demanding it 'looks like America'. By fantastic coincidence, the 'POC' the left will want to be included will all be leftys. If that body is overwhelmingly not white, then 'looking like America' is not important.
If there is a debate or discussion that the left knows it can't win on merit, then it will look for any mention by the other side of anything to do with people who aren't 'white' and bingo - out comes the race card. Playing that card isn't a new gambit, but lately it's become so overworked, it's laughable.
But it seems to keep the left cooked up, and the major news media play right along, so it looks like we'll be seeing it used quite often - even when race isn't even actually involved.
Now it would seem to a logical person that this game gets the left tangled up in it's own rope, but at that point, the topic is suddenly dropped, and the weather is now the issue.
Just ask any lefty about Asians - are they 'white' or are they 'POC'?
Or ask a lefty why it's OK to say a 10 year old child is bad because their parents are Euro-descent but not OK to say anything negative about anyone else because of their ancestry.
Uh oh -
"Those are the kinds of questions white supremacists ask!"
Aaaand that's the end of that 'conversation'.

[Scott O]

Walt 4:25 - "Accelerating Environmental and Economic Justice Initiative"
Isn't that at the top of everyone's 'to do' list?
Sounds to me like a perfect name for a pit to throw endless amounts of money into.
Think of how many toadies they can hire at 6 digit salaries just to come up with an org chart and their next years budget.
But don't you dare question the whole operation or demand an accounting for results.
That would be racist.

[George Rebane]

ScottO 820am - Now just ask any of these lefty pinheads to define ANY of these terms that they so freely use and append to people who don’t agree with them; start with ‘racist’ and ‘racism’. They have neither the intellect nor the political balls to offer a coherent definition for these, and instead vilify you for daring to ask such a question.

[Scott O]

George 9:26 - Yep, we have the latest dust-up over Tucker Carlson 'noticing' and commenting on why the Dems want to let millions of illegals in.
Some Dems have been stupid enough to actually admit in public it will help their demographics eventually at the polls. They want to import millions of Dem voters, and distribute them out to red states.
Ancestry and skin color have nothing to do with it, but if you talk about it....
RACISM!

[Gregory]

Of 11 judicial nominees... not one 'white' male , despite the category of lawyers prepared to be jurists predominately being ... ummm...

[George Rebane]

Gregory 1038am - Do we detect a possible racist thought working its way out into sunlight?

[Bill Tozer]

‘PRINCETON LIMITS WHITE MALE DOMESTIC ADMISSIONS TO 14 PERCENT OF NEXT CLASS*

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/04/princeton-admits-only-129-white-american-males.php

[fish]

Speaking of socialism.....spoken or otherwise.....looks like somebody has been co-opted.

BLM Founder Branded "Fraud" After Buying Million-Dollar Home In Mostly-White LA Enclave

..."trained Marxist" buys $1.4 million home in area with only 1.4% black population...

When asked, why Topanga Canyon? Cullors reportedly said that “she and her spouse were considering Truckee , CA but didn’t think they could find suitable employment at any of the local non-profits. That SBC....easier to get into to Harvard than work there if you’re black”.

(Well probably not.....but that’s how the voices in my head said it went!)😀

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/blm-founder-branded-fraud-after-buying-million-dollar-home-mostly-white-la-enclave

[Don Bessee]

Jimmy Carter 2.0 -

https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2021/04/10/pinkerton-joe-biden-first-elected-in-the-1970s-is-bringing-back-the-1970s/

;-)

[Walt]

Here's an idea,, just load all the C17s we have with loose denro, and open the door over Honduras.(or any given central American banana republic) It will do just as much good.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/republicans-biden-plan-cash-payments-central-america-madness

[Walt]

Don! Yup,, let's relive the 70's!!
"Biden should remember well what life was like during the Carter administration. And he should also remember that Carter went down in a landslide defeat in 1980, losing 41 of 50 states—including Biden’s Delaware—to Ronald Reagan."

Just change the name Reagan to Trump. ( Trump Jr. if need be)
Biden is well on the road to that.

As of now, it's a toss up for worst Prez.. Biden or "O"..
Both are/were job killers, both now how to piss away money as if they just had prostate surgery.

[Bill Tozer]

I am old enough to remember when the word ‘infrastructure’ mean infrastructure....like a year ago. With the Lefties twisting and contorting every word, I am not so certain that the infrastructure bill contains but a passing reference to infrastructure. Hard to keep up

[Bill Tozer]

Police Chief: “I am calling it a riot.”
Mob and mob media: “DON’T DO THAT!”

‘WATCH: Police chief heckled for calling Brooklyn Center riot a 'riot'
After riots, looting, and vandalism broke out in the Minnesota city of Brooklyn Center on Sunday night, police were told not to call the riot that ensued a "riot."

"Just so everyone's clear," Chief Tim Gannon began, "I was front and center at the protest, at the riot."

Those assembled piped up and interrupted him, saying that there was no riot.
"It was not a riot," one woman said.
Another chimed in "Don't do that," echoing the sentiment from the summer of 2020 when the leftist media concept was that declaring a riot a "riot" was racist.

"There was no riot," another said.
"There was," Gannon replied.
"There was no riot," said still another.

"Officers who were putting themselves in harm's way were being pelted with frozen cans of pop," the chief said.
"They were being pelted with concrete blocks. And yes we had our helmets on, and we had other protecting gear, but yes an officer was injured, hit in the head with a brick.
"That was a Hennepin County Deputy, he was transported to the hospital, so we had to make decisions. We had to disperse the crowd because we couldn't allow our officers to be harmed."“

https://thepostmillennial.com/watch-brooklyn-center-police-chief-heckled-for-calling-a-riot-a-riot

Socialist Semantics indeed.

[Gregory]

another must read!

"Serial excerpt No. 7: Why do so many kind, intelligent people join something so illogical and punitive?"

https://johnmcwhorter.substack.com/p/the-elect-the-threat-to-a-progressive-5c6