They Won't Control Our Vocabulary

The fascists' war on words will fail

“No, Winston, that is no use. You are lying. You still think there are four.”

—O’Brien in 1984

Now they're not only trying to eradicate our vocabulary. They're trying to force us to use theirs.

Forbidden are “diversity, trans, gender, climate,” etc. Forced on us are “Gulf of America, Mount McKinley,” and the confederate names of military bases. Surely more are to come.

For example, a bill is now being introduced in the Florida legislature to rename portions of US highway 41, from Tamiami Trail to be Gulf of America Trail. You can't make this stuff up.

They’re doing this to try to eliminate our ability to discuss issues that they wish would go away. And to try to both force us to acknowledge their power and converse using only their terms.

It won't work.

Americans don't like to be controlled. In New York City, there is a street officially known as Avenue Of the Americas. Everyone calls it Sixth Avenue.

New York City’s Sixth Avenue

Similarly, New Yorkers still call the Triborough Bridge, 59th Street Bridge, the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, the Tappan Zee Bridge, and a portion of the West Side Highway by their traditional names. Even though, in some cases, they’ve been renamed after some very popular politicians.

Below is a 1973 Congressionsl report that seemed certain that the metric system would become standard in America. Good luck.

As for the social network born as Twitter, many people (non MAGAts) still use that name. I do.

When was the last time you enjoyed a bunch of these ?

Of course, some new names are so compelling that adopting them is almost effortless.