Language, Corporate Politics, and Tyranny

               Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 1/29/22

            Beware whenever the government, the military, corporations, universities, and school systems start re-naming things. They’re up to something. We’re not talking about branding, updating, or trying to make things more productive, or more appealing. We’re talking weasel words and slippery phrases that hide true meaning or true intent. Examples abound.

            Most of the re-naming going on today is done mainly for political purposes, that is, to sway people one way or the other ideologically. Ostensibly, much of it is said to be for achieving “equity,” a weasel word often used for sneaky purposes. Notice that “equality” is no longer cool. “Equity” is the word of choice.

            Corporate America’s involvement in newspeak and political ideology is a strange occurrence. Corporations used to exist to make money, thereby creating jobs and in most cases improving our lives. No more. Abandoning their duties to shareholders and companies, CEOs have of late been involved in pure politics. Not content with pleasing customers and increasing profits, CEOs have fallen for what is “woke,” another one of those new verbal atrocities which I have used here for my first and last time.

            A case in point: In 2021 Georgia enacted voting reform. SB 202 was a commonsense measure. But it wasn’t good enough for good ole Coca Cola and Delta, not to mention JPMorgan Chase, Apple, American Express, and dozens of other large companies that collectively announced their opposition to the legislation. As every Braves fan knows, Major League Baseball pulled its All-Star game from Georgia because of the voting law. Sports figures and owners are also telling us what we should think and believe.

            In a memo to employees, Delta CEO Ed Bastian wrote that Georgia’s Republican Legislature “used the excuse of voter fraud to make it harder for under-represented voters to exercise their constitutional right to elect their representatives.” And what is the new name for this corporate practice of our business elites? Oh, it’s “social investing.” National Republicans didn’t wait very long to defend the Georgia legislature. Florida Senator Marco Rubio labeled Delta a “corporate hypocrite,” pointing out that Delta is “business partners with the Chinese Communist Party, raking in billions of dollars in a country that doesn’t even have elections.” 

            The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel asserted that corporations are bending to Nancy Pelosi’s will. “Corporate America is now throwing its lot in with the Democrats. It will be a long time mending fences with Republicans – if that’s even possible.” Time will tell if Strassel is right and if shareholders will fall for “social investing.”

            Re-naming is not limited to the corporate world. Educators everywhere are awash in it. Interestingly enough, educational re-naming began decades ago. One of the first was the mish-mash, catch-all term of “social studies,” a term that included but also diminished history, placing it with subjects far flung from the study of the past. Are history and “Family Living” in any way related? How about history and even sociology? For the 51 years I taught English, the high schools called English “Language Arts.” The colleges I taught in, thank goodness, called it English.

            Another broad and very sneaky term embraced by many school systems in the 70s and 80s was “values clarification.” Many parents objected. But how could parents object to schools helping student clarify their values, the proponents asked. Parents answered by pointing to the book, “Values Clarification,” by Sidney Simon in which Simon writes, “Young people brought up by moralizing adults are not prepared to make their own responsible choices. Values clarification tries to help young people build their own value system.” Wow! What, I ask, are parents for?

            The culture at large is being swamped but hopefully not boondoggled by weasel words and re-defined ones.  We all know what an “undocumented worker” is. It’s doubtful that thinking people would fall for “birthing people,” a supposedly preferable term for the supposedly sexist “pregnant woman.” No longer are we to say “husband” or “wife.” The correct term is “partners,” thanks to the LGBTQ lobby.  The ubiquitous “reproductive rights” is almost laughable. How is “terminating” a baby “reproductive”?  It’s the opposite.

            Tyranny is defined as severe, oppressive power. Those who would mislead or attempt to achieve their goals with deceptive words are linguistic tyrants. Words are powerful. Words are the dress of our thoughts. No wonder Mark Twain said, “Use the right word and not its second cousin.” No wonder Noah Webster, in order to simplify British English for a frontier people and to clarify language for his homeschooled children, wrote our first dictionary.

            Yes, tyranny abounds and the tyrants’ weapons are not always guns. Fitfully, they are often just words.

Roger Hines

1/26/22