Woke language

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) once said: ‘The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.’ And if the woke have their way our world is getting smaller all the time; the walls closing in like the trash compactor in Star Wars. And in this world nothing remains where it was the last time you looked. J.K. Rowling is part of the furniture today and on the trash heap tomorrow. In one decade the gay community is sneering at marriage as an outdated institution for ‘breeders’ in the next they are demanding it for themselves.

In this linguistic and ontological fog we are grateful to Kevin Donnelly for shining a bright light in the form of his new book The Woke Dictionary. This is a fully revised, expanded and updated edition of his earlier book, A Politically Correct Dictionary and Guide (2019). What is remarkable is how much has changed in the three years since the earlier publication.

For example, did you know that cow’s milk ‘has long been a symbol of white supremacy’? That is the remarkable claim made by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Why this is so, is not exactly made clear. Is it only because it’s white? In which case, is chocolate milk okay? And do we have to stop using white paper as a ‘symbol of white supremacy’?

Or, did you know that whenever you add milk to your coffee you are supporting rape? The Woke Dictionary quotes PETA’s website as saying: ‘Rape is perhaps the single most heinous crime involving both power and violence. But it’s the standard procedure in the dairy industry. Cows on dairy farms are forcibly impregnated so their milk production will continue. They’re restrained in what the farmers themselves call “rape racks” while insemination instruments are shoved into their vaginas’. Well, no, they’re not called ‘rape racks’– they’re called ‘bails’. But, hey, in the world of woke, words the facts don’t matter. I also discover I am often guilty of ‘culinary white supremacy’ – every time I enjoy sushi, tandoori chicken or tacos I have committed ‘cultural appropriation’. Do I have to go back to the meat and three veg I grew up on?

In Dr Donnelly’s own area of expertise, education, the entries are especially revealing. It turns out that schools no longer have ‘students’ or ‘pupils’- instead, kids are now ‘digital natives’ and ‘knowledge navigators’. Those formerly known as ‘teachers’ are now ‘facilitators’ whose work with each child is just to be a ‘guide by their side’. The result, of course, is that our PISA test results continue to tumble. I suspect we are now somewhere below Rwanda.

No fewer than fifteen of Kevin Donnelly’s entry headings contain the word ‘gender.’ In a series of sharp, snappy entries he ushers us through the world in which babies no longer have any ‘gender’– instead, they have a ‘gender assigned at birth’. XX and XY chromosomes have ceased to exist (has anyone told the biosciences yet?) and the dangly bits on the baby boys should be politely ignored.

One of the strengths of the book is that as well as 352 definitions (from ‘ableism’ to ‘zie’) it includes seven articles by Dr Donnelly telling us where this movement came from and (most importantly) what we can do about it. He points the finger at the ‘invisible man’ looming like a giant puppet master over the World of Woke (never openly acknowledged) – Karl Marx.

Kevin also acknowledges the astonishing prescience of George Orwell. In reality, this Woke Dictionary is a dictionary of Newspeak. As Orwell noted, ‘The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the worldview and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc [English Socialism], but to make all other modes of thought impossible. It was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought – that is, a thought diverging from the principles of Ingsoc – should be literally unthinkable, at least so far thought is dependent of words.’

https://spectator.com.au/2022/09/woke-language/

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

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