Guest Post: Insidious Stealth Mind-Control Is Spreading And I Have No Idea What Can Be Done About It

by Jack Marshall

[Introduction: In keeping with the stated purpose of Society Building Blocks, Critically Thinking About Things That Change Society, I present this guest post by Jack Marshall of Ethics Alarms which is a copy of an essay Marshall posted on his blog and it’s directly related to something that is changing our society.]

It is well-established that when a mind lacks the linguistic tools to conceive of certain thoughts, those thoughts become impossible to conceive. This is why tight control of the language was so central to Big Brother’s control of the populace in “1984,” and, it seems clear, why current aspiring power-mongers on the Left are increasingly employing censorship and linguistic manipulation to herd a lazy, badly-educated and apathetic public into virtual pens where they can be controlled and relied upon to support their betters.

In the last couple of weeks we learned that woke-infested publishers have been stealth editing the works of Roald Dahl and Ian Fleming; this week, “Goosebumps” author R.L. Stine announced that his popular series has been similarly edited “for sensitive readers” without his consent. Who knows what other classic books are having their original authors’ words, ideas and messages altered by anonymous political correctness hacks in the pursuit of “social justice”?

Now comes the news (via The Spectator) that a prime online news source and political analysis site is also in the business of restricting language. Here is a list of  “non-inclusive words” that Politico’s reporters have been instructed to avoid using:

• Man-made
• Mankind
• Manhunt
• Crack the whip: Unacceptable because of origins in slavery
• Waiter or waitress: Server should be used instead
• Biological gender, biological sex, biological woman, biological female, biological man, or biological male
• Illegal immigrant or illegal alien
• Cake walk: “Originated during slavery” and thus perpetuates “racist motifs”
• In reference to illegal migration: onslaught, tidal wave, flood, inundation, surge, invasion, army, march, sneak and stealth
• Anchor baby
• Chain migration: This is a term used by “immigration hard-liners”
• Peanut gallery: “The cheapest seats often occupied by Black people and people with low incomes”
• Third-world countries: Too “derogatory”

From the article

The guide also warned that reporters should not say that a transgender person “identifies as” a certain gender, or describe the current situation at the border as a “crisis,” because “while the sharp increase in the arrival of unaccompanied minors is a problem for border officials, a political challenge for the Biden administration and a dire situation for many migrants who make the journey, it does not fit the dictionary definition of a crisis.” It also cautioned reporters against portraying migrants as a “negative, harmful influence.”

What can anyone do to stop this? I can put Politico on the rapidly growing Ethics Alarms boycott list, but then I can’t ethically audit Politico. Here comes Geena again,

…but worrying about what’s happening isn’t the same as addressing the problem.