Ever since the election, I am becoming more and more
disturbed when I read or watch the news. The problem is
what I can only refer to as “Newspeak”. In George
Orwell’s novel 1984, information was rewritten over and
over in efforts to present a more positive spin on the
government.
One of the more irritating examples of this for me is
calling the Iraq rebels “insurgents”. Dictionary.com
defines the word as “rising in revolt against established
authority, especially a government”. The key word here is
ESTABLISHED – there hasn’t yet been any real
established authority in Iraq since the war. In reality
aren’t WE the real “insurgents” since it was US who
revolted against the established Iraq government?!
Now, I admit I have seen a good deal of newspeak since
Bush took office, but it seems to have been ramped up
lately. Some examples from this week alone:
- “War Fighters” — In the latest budget for the
Iraq war the Republicans in Congress insisted on
changing the word “Soldier” to “War Fighter”.
When one thinks of a soldier they think of
someone who serves in the military. Until
recently I often thought that soldiers are those
who try to keep order and peace. We see this
during national disasters. Soldiers are deployed
to protect property and to bring food and water
to needy people. Calling them “War Fighters”
completely changes what these people are
suppose to do. No longer are they “keepers of
the peace” they are now “fighters of war”. Such
a fundamental change is VERY important in this
society. We are no longer thinking of ourselves
as trying to instill peace, we are fighting wars.
- “Dissidents” — I read a CNN article where
those who are challenging the Ohio election are
called “dissidents”. Yes, the simple definition
from Dictionary.com says “one who disagrees”,
but this word had been used to mean much
more than that. Dissidents are often referred to
as violent people who are on the “wrong” side.
Calling them dissidents further instills the idea
that these people are just a bunch of left wing
radicals. Heck, we can start calling anyone who
disagrees with the Right-Wing agenda a
“dissident”!
- “Food Insecurity” — This is perhaps the most
outrageous one I have heard this week. During
the holiday season people begin to think of those
less fortunate, and many places start “food
drives”. I was watching the local news and
someone from one of these food drive
organizations began referring to children that
went to bed hungry as having “Food Insecurity”.
My first reaction was something like:
“FOOD INSECURITY?? WHAT THE F*CK IS
WRONG WITH PEOPLE???!!!” – and that’s
pretty much how I still feel about this issue. We
no longer use that “awful” word STARVING!
These people aren’t insecure about their food –
they don’t have any food to be insecure about!!
Dictionary.com defines “insecure” as “not sure
or certain”. “Food Insecurity” sounds like they
have some mental health issue regarding food! I
guarantee you these people are pretty damn
sure they aren’t going to have enough food to
eat! Let’s stop sugar coating the issue – they are
starving children, not children with insecurities.
The first thing that popped into my head
regarding this was how when during the 2000
election campaign G.W. Bush, after hearing that
Texas had the #1 poverty rate in the country
(BTW – just barely surpassing Oregon), denied
that there were any hungry people in Texas. He
insisted this was all “made up” in efforts to
embarrass him. At first I thought he was flat out
lying, but now I think he is so out of touch that
he simply can’t imagine how “real people” live.
He can not fathom that people in this country
are starving, so instead let’s just give it a more
“pleasant” name!
I guess the real problem behind all this is people just don’t
think for themselves. The news reporters conform to what
the government tells them – after all the government
knows what’s best don’t they??!!
I’ve been listening to a lot of Air America talk radio lately
and I am pleased to hear at least they are speaking out
about this “newspeak” crap. Yet I still find that people
just don’t seem care enough to get involved. I heard caller
after caller on shows ask the same question over and over
“Why aren’t people protesting the election in the streets in
the USA like they are in the Ukraine?” My response to
them is “Yes! Why aren’t YOU protesting in the streets?!”
Are we just too lazy as Americans? Don’t enough of us
care? I would like this think that’s not the case –
especially after seeing people wait 8+ hours in line to vote
in the last election. Perhaps they have given up? I just
don’t know.
What I do know is if no one speaks out against this
“newspeak” garbage, then we are truly so apathetic that
we will let the media spoon feed us what the government
wants us to hear. Well, this is one person who won’t let
that happen!
