Here is a brief lexicon of the weasel words and phrases we have been hearing and reading over and over again since Sunday morning.
These are the same words the mandarins of Political Correctness employed after Fort Hood, after San Bernardino, after Chattanooga, after the Boston Marathon bombing – it’s as if we’re living through a blood-soaked remake of the old movie Groundhog Day.
Remember the old poem: “Last night I saw upon the stair:/ A little man who wasn’t there./ He wasn’t there again today./ Oh how I wish he’d go away.”
That’s Barack Obama… and Hillary Clinton. They can’t ID the little man on the stair, lest they offend their core constituents.
Anyway, this is not a complete list, and we’ll be adding to it on my radio show this afternoon starting at 3 p.m. First the euphemism, and then its English-language translation.
“Self-radicalized.” Not our fault! This is the terror equivalent of the late Boston Mayor Thomas “Mumbles” Menino arguing his administration should not be blamed for any murders that occurred inside buildings.
“Homegrown.” See, self-radicalized.
“Lone wolf.” See, homegrown. Question: how many lone wolves does it take to make a wolf pack?
“Hate crime.” Terrorist attack by a non-Muslim, unless it’s a fake hate crime, in which case no charges will be filed because it was merely an attempt by a member of a politically protected victim class to “begin a dialogue.”
“US citizen Omar Mateen.” Meaning, he was likely an anchor baby.
“Minnesota man.” A Somali.
“Partisan rhetoric.” Pointing out who murdered the 49 people.
“Met his bride on the Internet.” Terror-arranged marriage between “US citizen” and a female terrorist from abroad.
“Moderate Muslims.” Mythical creatures found only in the media.
“Workplace violence.” A terrorist attack committed by a Muslim.
“He attended a moderate mosque.” That means only two terrorists have come out of it – so far.
“His family entered the U.S. as refugees.” Translation: they were Muslims, and they had been on welfare since the moment they entered the Great Satan.
“Stop the finger pointing!” Words only uttered by Democrats, meaning, “Stop pointing the finger at me!”
“Comprehensive immigration reform.” Allowing more Muslim terrorists into the country.
“Common sense gun-control reform.” Disarming American citizens so that they cannot defend themselves from the beneficiaries of comprehensive immigration reform.
“That’s not who we are!” Knee-jerk response for any calls to secure the nation’s border and halt the unrestricted flow of foreign Muslim terrorists into the nation.
From the police scanner: “Hostage situation! Translator needed!” What language – Italian? German? Gaelic?
“It’s just part of their culture.” Anything that would be called a hate crime if perpetrated by anyone whom the president denigrates as bitter clingers.
“Dangerous mindset.” A non-PC worldview.
“Racist.” Anyone who wants that nation’s current immigration laws enforced. Synonyms: xenophobe, nativist.
The bottom line is, if you can dismiss all of your opponents’ arguments as, say, “dangerous rhetoric,” or a “wedge issue,” then you can control the debate.
The left already has de facto control of most law enforcement and almost all of the media. For example, at the first press conference after the Muslim massacre in Orlando Sunday morning, no mention of terrorism was made by any law enforcement until a Fox News reporter asked a direct question using the “t” word.
As for the media, the Associated Press recently banned all use of the phrase “illegal alien.” Last week the new transgender facility set up on the Texas border was described as being reserved for “immigrants.” Until recently the Associated Press routinely buried the party affiliation of any criminal politicians with a “D” after their name.
Now, in two recent stories about convicted California state senators, named Yee and Calderon, as well as a convicted state assemblyman who was the brother of Sen. Calderon, no party affiliation whatsoever was listed. They were all Democrats.
Yet in Vermont last week, the party affiliation of an arrested Republican state senator was mentioned in the fourth paragraph of an AP story out of Montpelier.
George Orwell famously said that he who controls the past controls the present, and he who controls the present controls the future. More to the point, the mentor of Obama and Hillary, Saul Alinsky, is sometimes quoted as saying, “He who controls the language controls the masses.”
It may be apocryphal, but if Alinsky didn’t say it, he should have. Either way, his pupils have taken the lesson to heart.