Agreed.
Is someone is keeping track of all these decisions so that they can be reversed? I’m thinking a list with simple language, per-packaged for the next administration to check off.
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Trump’s crew has a list of all the Obama reversals. That’d be a good place to start.
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I’m sorry - but I would not trust that crew with my grocery list, let alone something more important.
I did find this - though it is not up to date: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pggbpz/all-the-laws-and-executive-orders-trump-has-signed-so-far
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The point about Orwell’s dystopia was that it wasn’t socialist. It described how the intellectuals and the BBC (for which Orwell worked in 1948, hence 1984) would fall in line with Stalinism just as they had in the USSR.
But his point about how the media (and the choice of vocabulary) manipulates the news was spot on.
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Good time to rewatch this clip.
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A pretty accurate projection of the state in which the CDC will be left by the end of Trump’s presidency:
Yeah, I know, that’s not the real CDC building, it just plays one on TV.
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Indeed. The CDC is in midtown/emory area (and has only just now become part o the city officially). That’s actually the Cobb Energy Center, and sits just on the inside of the perimeter.
also, an image of an accurate future!
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A large part of the reason for the “dreaded political correctness “ was an attempt to replace terms that had become commonplace insults. “Differently abled” was just a (horribly clumsy) substitute for “cripple” - and was needed because that had become a too frequent slur for anyone with actual disabilities or merely having a moment of clumsiness. I got “fucking cripple” screamed at me by a gym teacher at high school simply because I wasn’t interested in throwing balls. What it must feel like to someone that is actually crippled in some manner is something I hope never to experience.
We’re seeing exactly the same knee jerk reaction to the craaaaazeeeeee new idea that it isn’t decent to use gender based slurs.
The practical problem is that humans will always find new ways to insult others. Get rid of one insult and a new one will pop up by tomorrow.
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Republican hostility towards the CDC as a science-based organization goes back at least 20 years, so no real surprise: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/10/04/gun-violence-research-has-been-shut-down-for-20-years/?utm_term=.433e8a022b7b
If you and your base gravitate to conspiracy theories and home-schooling, you really won’t have satisfaction until the entire CDC is replaced with medical infomercials:
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And if you read the article and not Cory’s hyperbole, you see that this is only for budgetary documents. The point is not to use trigger words in Congress. Science can still use them.
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I… don’t know anymore what a trigger word is. Fetus? Science-based? Is this about how Republicans are special and have a right to define a safe space within the legislative process?
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That Congress has trigger words is problematic, but the point here is that the CDC is doing what they need to do to continue doing their work, it is not an administration-led effort to subvert science.
If our news can’t be fact-based, why should our budgets be?
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Merely to prevent open discussion of it by those in position to allocate scarce public resources.
Totally not the same thing as subversion.
fact-based
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slow clap. Thank you.
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I know. If you’re a certain age (I’m 61), you might remember what common speech was like in the pre-PC days. The idea that you’re expected to be polite to women, immigrants, minorities, the disabled, people with accents, and so on, is revolutionary. And, apparently, horrifying to many people.
If you grew up in a loving family, and looked up to a parent who would be the life of the party by saying mean things about the weak, I can certainly see why recharacterizing that behavior as mean or negative would make you uncomfortable. But, come on… It’s just simple politeness, but extended to those you didn’t used to have to be polite to.
If you ever want an eye-opening experience, find an old joke book for businessmen. I have a few from my late father-in-law. Shocking stuff. (Especially if you’re Scottish, weirdly…)
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A more fact-based analysis would lead one to say it is an attempt to preserve independence in the real work by de-politicizing the budget process.
Remember Obama talking about “reducing spending in the tax code”?
It was a nice way of saying “raising taxes”.
Who’s got an Acme anvil handy?
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Or a massive mallet that springs out a huge fist. KA-POW!
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oh, so banning words is a non-political act?
Annnnnd… When is Alice due for the teaparty?
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