The Left's Assault on Language - Olavo citado nos Estados Unidos

THE JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY

Written by Donald Hank  |  Wednesday, 25 February 2009

Many conservatives now hesitate to identify themselves as conservatives or as being on the Right. One reason for this hesitation, no doubt, is the erratic way President Bush conducted himself in office.

Another reason is less known and almost never discussed. The definition of the terms Left and Right have been deliberately and carefully altered over the last few decades, just as most terms that apply to social issues have ("gay" "marriage", fundamentalism, racism, Supreme Court "striking down" laws, references to men with sex changes as "she", etc.).

The term "right" or "conservative" has been co-opted by the Left (I mean “Left” in the original sense) so that it now includes people in the extreme middle and on the near Left. Hence, the policies of G.W. Bush, even those relating to border control and immigration, are referred to erroneously as rightwing. After all, most Americans accept at face value Bush’s extravagant claim to be a conservative. This is because few understand that Bush's thinking has been heavily influenced by the "religious" Left, flying under the radar and generally mislabeled, deliberately again, as "religious right." Bush did not accept miscreant schemes like the SPP, the Mexican truck highway, open borders and amnesty for illegal immigrants only because he wanted to cater to business interests, as the Left and pseudo-Right stoutly maintain. He did so because he believed the “evangelical” myth that nationalism – and hence, national sovereignty as opposed to allegiance to world or supranational government – is anti-Christian, which is utter and absolute nonsense.

If we accept these unacceptable redefinitions of English, then, of course, we can no longer use the terms Left and Right because they are in constant flux at the whim of the Left.

But why should we chase after the Left's definition du jour as so many hapless tagalongs have done on their way to our current state of semi-anarchy? We must accept no other definition than the original organic one and it is not our fault if some foolishly accept bogus definitions – that is, it is not our fault if some have lacked the discernment to see how our language has been deliberately eroded by interest groups to their own benefit and to the detriment of our nation.

Another great example, by the way, is red states vs blue states, a word pair that is perfectly crafted to make the unwary forget that red China was communist, or that red was the preferred color of the Russian Revolution. We are now all the same under our newspeak definitions.

To understand these stealthy changes and to know what the Left – in the original sense of that word – is all about, you can rely on the writings of Olavo De Carvalho, who may well be the foremost authority anywhere on the Left and on the useful idiots who aid and abet them. He still knows the correct meanings of words (in more than one language) and refuses to let the Left lead him around by the nose.

All of this language change madness is a perfect illustration of why conservatives have the duty to "stand athwart history and yell 'stop,'" according to William Buckley’s definition.

Sadly, many of us have instead yelled: "take it slow going over the cliff."

Those who have done so are conservatives only by the Left's definition. Isn't it time to stand our ground, reclaim our language and stop being maneuvered by these weasels?

Then we can have our name back, without apology.

Donald Hank is a former language teacher, currently operating a technical translation agency in Wrightsville, PA. A former language teacher, he holds an undergraduate degree in French and German from Millersville State University (PA), a Master’s degree in Russian language and literature from Kutztown State College (also in PA), has studied Chinese for 3 years in Taiwan at the Mandarin Training Center, and is self-taught in other languages, having logged a total of 8 years abroad in total immersion situations. He is also the founder of Lancaster-York Non-Custodial Parents, a volunteer organization that provides Christian counseling for non-custodial parents.