Kerby Anderson

Yesterday I talked about “defining woke.” Today, I want to talk about defining words. Noah Rothman recently explained “How We Know That Woke Is Losing.” He begins by explaining that the media has been pretending that we no longer know what the word “woke” means. That’s a new tactic of the left, but it’s like their other tactic of redefining words.

One example of this linguistic sleight-of-hand was the decision a decade ago to ditch the phrase “gun control.” A reporter for the Atlantic talked about how the anti-gun advocates were toying with alternatives such as “gun-violence prevention” and “firearms regulation” and “gun safety.” That last one has become the euphemism of choice though it does evoke the idea of a “firearms-training course,” which many of us took before we purchased our first gun. I suspect the confusion is intentional.

Another example is abortion, or what today has been called “reproductive rights.” A study done more than a decade ago concluded that the word “choice” wasn’t working for activists. Therefore, we hear about “reproductive justice” and “reproductive rights” or even “women’s health care.” Again, I am convinced the ambiguity is intentional.

Notice the change from “global cooling” to “global warming” to "climate change". But that wasn’t working for environmental activists. We now hear about a “climate crisis” or even the claim that we are in the midst of a “climate emergency.”

The current transgender debate required lots of redefinitions. Five years ago, the New York Times concluded that gender “originates between your ears, not between your legs.” That is why reporters stopped talking about “sexual reassignment” surgery in favor of calling it “gender-affirming care.”

You know one side is losing when it must redefine words and redefine reality to advance its agenda.