There’s a reason why the pen is mightier than the sword. Words are a powerful tool we can use to communicate our thoughts from one person to another.
Language is one of the most important weapons people use to control each other. To control language is to control thought. How we frame and construct language is how we frame and construct reality.
Language is one of the key components of all systems of mass thought control and manipulation. Totalitarian regimes use language to bend entire populations to the control of a few individuals.
We can use language on an individual level to frame reality for good or bad. We can use language to change our mental state and help improve our lives. We can redefine the narrative of our lives and direct ourselves on a more constructive course that serves our best interests.
Abusive relationships use language to trap the victim in a state where they accept the situation and don’t try to resist.
We’re seeing this on a mass scale right now. Our culture is trying to cancel certain words and forbid their use in common parlance. The people trying to cancel these words are doing it to control and weaken us. They’re trying to weaken our ability to conceptualize what’s happening around us.
The most striking and insulting example of this is the use of the term, unalive being used in place of suicide. We already have a word for this. The word is suicide. We don’t need another one.
Do you honestly think it’s better to say that someone unalived themselves than to say they committed suicide or that they took their own life? Do you honestly believe you’re being somehow more sensitive by not saying the word, suicide out loud?
This is the stupidest thing ever. Just say what you mean instead of tiptoeing around it. It’s absolutely stupid that someone talking about suicide would get their video banned on YouTube or their account deleted or their video downgraded.
It’s absolutely stupid that I can’t make a YouTube video about this because the Great Google Juggernaut would probably delete my video if I used the word, suicide or talked about someone trying to kill themselves.
Is this really what we’ve come to? Are we really this weak—that we can’t even talk about these things openly?
The sensitive crowd who wants to cancel these words would have us believe that we’re making it easier for suicidal people by softening our language and letting them know that we care. These sensitive, so-called caring people would have us believe that we’re destigmatizing suicide by making it easier to talk about.
In fact, we’re doing the opposite. We’re creating an even deeper stigma around it because we refuse even to say the word out loud and talk about it for what it really is.
I’ve been suicidal, and trust me, it doesn’t help a depressed, suicidal person one bit if you use another word for it. It actually makes it harder.
The other offensive example is the use of the term SA instead of rape-. This is what the word rape means. It means sexual assault. We already have a word for it. Just use the correct word. Calling it SA doesn’t change what it is. This is just a form of manipulation and censorship. It serves no purpose except to manipulate and censor. It accomplishes nothing else.
The absolute worst offender of this is calling rape struggle-snuggle. This is so unforgivably insulting and demeaning to the survivors. This kind of language makes it so much easier for people to commit these crimes. The language diminishes the crimes' severity and makes them seem softer, nicer, and gentler than they actually are.
Anyone who uses this phrase should be ashamed of themselves. You're abetting these crimes and encouraging people to commit them. Call rape what it is. Calling it something else doesn't make it nicer or less offensive because nothing can make it less offensive.
This kind of euphemistic language has been used for centuries to maneuver whole populations into positions and ideologies that don’t serve society’s best interest. We should all be extremely wary of these trends and resist them as strenuously as possible.
I did an internet search of this topic in preparation for writing this post. Here are a few more absurd examples of words we aren’t supposed to use anymore.
Apparently, it’s now considered insensitive to call someone an addict or an alcoholic. Instead, we’re supposed to call them a person with a substance abuse disorder.
This is so mind-numbingly stupid that I struggle to take it seriously. It would be impossible to take it so seriously if this line of thinking wasn’t so dangerous.
People who are addicted to drugs and alcohol don’t have a disorder. Substance addiction is not a disorder. It’s an addiction. That’s what the word addict means. It’s someone who is addicted to an addictive substance. A disorder is a medical condition. Treating the addiction as a medical condition would be the worst thing you could do for the person.
The word alcoholic means someone who is addicted to alcohol. Alcohol is an addictive drug even more habit-forming than heroin. People get addicted to alcohol. These people suffer from withdrawals and behaviors that keep them trapped in the cycle of addiction. This is what alcoholism is. It isn’t a disorder. It’s an addiction. That’s exactly why we have a word for it—to distinguish it from what it isn’t.
This is why the very first step in the Twelve Step Program is to label oneself as an alcoholic or addict and own it. I was married to an alcoholic for five years. The day I admitted that to myself was the day my life changed.
Calling the alcoholic or addict a person with a substance abuse disorder—this is the language of entrapment. It’s the language of enabling that keeps both the addict and those closest to them trapped in the cycle with no way out. Call it what it is. Don’t sugar-coat it or gloss it over. Just call a spade a spade and deal with it.
We’re supposed to start saying that a person is experiencing homelessness instead of just saying that the person is homeless. This is so unbelievably stupid. This is exactly the opposite of what we’re all taught as good use of the English language. Here we would be using four words to say exactly the same thing we could be saying in one word.
We have a word for people who don’t have homes. They’re called the homeless. The person is just as homeless if their situation is temporary as if it’s permanent. The situation being temporary or permanent doesn’t change the fact that they’re homeless. They’re still homeless if they’re living in their car. They’re still homeless if they’re living in a shelter. They’re still homeless if they’re in and out of temporary housing.
One of the tasks of good speech and writing is to eliminate unnecessary and repetitive use of words. Good speech and writing uses the fewest possible words to say the same thing. There is literally no difference between, homeless, and person experiencing homelessness. The difference is the number of words. There is absolutely nothing caring, sensitive, or destigmatizing about using one phrase over another. This is just moronic.
We can find hundreds of examples of this on the internet. The last example we’re going to look at is the word, illiterate. The sensitive cancellation crowd would have us believe that this is an offensive term that doesn’t apply to reality. These people would tell us that people aren’t either literate or illiterate, but rather on a spectrum of literacy and learning. These people would have us believe that many individuals labeled as illiterate actually only have a low level of literacy and that the person’s level could improve if the person got the right help and training.
This is a perfect example of the kind of gaslighting manipulation these word cancellers are trying to perpetrate on the rest of us. Yes, in fact, people are either literate or illiterate. You either are literate or you aren’t. You either know how to read or you don’t.
A four-year-old child who can read the word, cat is literate. A fifty-year-old man who can’t read the word cat is illiterate. He isn’t on a spectrum. He can’t read. Just tell the truth instead of trying to pull the wool over our eyes by lying about it.
A person with a low level of literacy is still literate. That’s what the word illiterate means. It means the person can’t read at all. They might know the alphabet, but they can’t read. They will be a lot more likely to get the help they need if they and everyone else just admits the truth and says those words instead of playing these idiotic mind games and bending the truth to sweep the problem under the rug.
That’s all these words accomplish. They put a band aid on the problem. They don’t solve anything. They actually make the problem worse and they make the stigma worse. Do yourself and the rest of the world a huge favor and call the problem what it is.
Is the person suicidally depressed—or did they already kill themselves? Just say so. Then we can all get to work dealing with the problems that caused it to happen.
Is the person addicted to drugs or alcohol? Just say so. Stop excusing it or calling it something else. Excusing it or calling it a disorder or using any other euphemism for it will only enable to person to keep doing it.
Did the person get raped? Do you really think you’re doing them a favor by calling it something else? You aren’t. Believe me. I speak from experience on this.
Is the person illiterate? Do they need to learn to read? Great. Let’s get started with the basics.
Is the person homeless? We have the technology to deal with that, but dealing with it starts with admitting what the problem is. We can’t fix it until we do acknowledge it.
We have these words for a reason. We don’t need to invent new ones or use any manipulative combination of other words to avoid talking about the problems. Avoiding talking about the problem is what creates stigma in the first place.
Do you want to be part of the solution? Then start using the correct language to talk about both the problem and the solution. You’re only making the problem worse by doing anything else—and by doing that, you’re becoming part of the problem.
Make a stand for what’s right by telling the truth. Don’t lie about it. No one respects that—especially not the people you’re trying to help.
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All content on the Crimes Against Fiction Blog is © Theo Mann. You are free to distribute and repost this work on condition that you credit the original author.