In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Humpty Dumpty autocratically declares that “When I use a word, it means what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.” But, says Alice: “The question is whether you can make words mean so many different things.” To which Humpty retorts: “The question is which is to be master – that’s all.”

Now comes Trumpty Dumpty, asserting that he and his government redefiners are our linguistic masters. For starters, they unilaterally exed out three hallowed words that have historically expressed our people’s proud democratic purpose – diversity, equity, and inclusion.

This month, investigative journalist Judd Legum uncovered dozens of words that partisan Trump functionaries are perverting and purging in a bizarre authoritarian frenzy. Legum even found that NSA, a non-partisan security agency, has now banned its staff from using 27 common words, including “bias” and “injustice.” It’s as though Trump’s word police think censoring language will hide the ugly realities the words express.

In fact, the control of language is central to the entrenchment of totalitarian regimes, as George Orwell laid out in his bleak novel, 1984. He wrote about “Newspeak,” “doublethink,” and other linguistic twists as mass propaganda tools that eliminated inconvenient ideas and provided new “truth” for the party faithful to spread. Such manipulation, Orwell says, creates “loyal willingness to say black is white.” Thus, we see the spectacle of Trump blindly signing an executive order titled “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship” – even as he blatantly censors speech and stomps on our freedoms.

So come on – speak up against such thuggish Orwellian tyranny! For information, go to National Coalition Against Censorship: NCAC.org

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