I know it’s late to mention, but I can’t help myself: here are some of the words of 2017. The only reason I reach back a month or two is because of the resonance with what’s been going on in 2018 too.
The doublethink of “inappropriate” makes sexual molestation and rape sound like a minor misdemeanour. Classic. The power of language to change how you feel about what people do. It is up there with “collateral damage” for the murder of a civilian by a member of the armed forces.
Over the last few years, I have seen women apologise for being feminist (no idea why) and others apologise for not being feminist, but now the word has ceased to hold the disrepute the so-called “alt-right” have tried to attach to it.
Of course, alt-right is a piece of doublethink in itself. The people who are called alt-right nowadays used to be called neo-Nazi or cryptofascist. The implication that there is an alternative to being right wing that is more right wing than average is apparently acceptable. Not with me it ain’t.
If any of this has offended your political sensibilities then suck it in. Nice.
