Can We Still Govern (Substack): “Which stories about academia matter?”

Public education has been under attack by the Republicans since I was a boy in the ’60s. Higher education hasn’t escaped the same opposition, but it’s never been as assaulted as it is today. This is categorized as a ‘must read’. And a great follow-up to yesterday’s post about authoritarianism/fascism.

Many important subjects here, but I’m focused on one in particular. Scroll down to the official ‘banned words list’ for governmental documents in that above article. You know what I’m going to pull out. The GOPAC memo of 1990, "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control". Those words changed the existing political messaging of the time, weaponizing it exponentially. The extreme language was aped by the Left, and is now the pocket change of every politician and all the media since. We hear/read them daily, even hourly. It was that powerful a shot over the bow. “Mechanism of control”, indeed.

So imagine what this new ‘banned words’ philosophy will do, going forward.

“Woman” and “Women” are on this list.

I am NOT kidding.