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Stanford, in all of its woke wisdom decided to create a list of unacceptable words. There are many head scratchers on the 13 page list, including the word American. Yes, calling yourself an American is verboten according to the wokesters at Stanford.
Call yourself an “American”? Please don’t. Better to say “U.S. citizen,” per the bias hunters, lest you slight the rest of the Americas. “Immigrant” is also out, with “person who has immigrated” as the approved alternative. It’s the iron law of academic writing: Why use one word when four will do?
You can’t “master” your subject at Stanford any longer; in case you hadn’t heard, the school instructs that “historically, masters enslaved people.” And don’t dare design a “blind study,” which “unintentionally perpetuates that disability is somehow abnormal or negative, furthering an ableist culture.” Blind studies are good and useful, but never mind; “masked study” is to be preferred. Follow the science.
You can read through the entire list here. Whomever put it together spent a lot of time and effort on figuring out what words would be triggering even if the definitions as to WHY those words would be harmful is incredibly lame. Oh wait, I can’t use the word “lame” as I might offend someone who IS lame. Sorry, my bad. NOT.
The absurdity continues. Please, whatever you do, don’t call someone addicted to drugs an addict. Rather, they are “devoted” to their drug of choice. Calling something or someone crazy will trigger someone who is dealing with mental health issues.
We can no longer use Pocahontas because …it might hurt Elizabeth Warren’s feelings? Whatever you do after the Christmas break, don’t walk up to your fellow classmates (can you use the word fellow? it’s not on the list…yet) and greet them with ‘Hey there! Long time no see!’ as you might offend someone of Chinese descent.
That’s the judgment of the university’s IT Department, which is rolling out its “Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative,” an effort to purge “potentially harmful terms” from the university’s websites. The guide cautions that the phrase “blind study” is “ableist” and that saying “balls to the wall” inappropriately “attributes personality traits to anatomy.”
~Snip
The Stanford guide discourages the use of “gender-based” terms like “landlord” and “mankind.” Even the seemingly progressive phrase “preferred pronouns” makes the list, since it “suggests that non-binary gender identity is a choice and a preference.”
And yes, the word American is on that list.
Stanford disapproves of saying you’re proud to be an American? Whoa.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2022
https://twitter.com/CHSommers/status/1605043762123751424
Yes, that shows how absurd yet dangerous the list is. It’s been a constant push over the last couple of years for people to announce themselves with their preferred pronouns, yet NOW Stanford says it’s bad because somehow it’s indicating a choice not a preference?? You can’t make this shit up.
Americans can no longer be referred to as brave, nor define people as ladies or gentlemen because it will leave those of the transgender (don’t use the word tranny) persuasion out on a limb. Furthermore, using the word American leaves a lot of other countries out in the cold such as Canada…
challenging times for Native Americans and African-Americans
— Adam Kissel (@kissel_adam) December 20, 2022
We can point and laugh at this, and we should. Here’s the problem with Stanford informing college students that calling themselves or one another American is bad. It isn’t just the colleges that are playing games with words. Our military has been attempting to go woke instead of training for war. Corporations have been going woke on numerous levels until they find out it’s bad for business. Disney is a prime example of that.
Too many college students will look at this list and unquestioningly adopt the new inclusive and exclusive language. And yes, no matter how one slices it, this new language guide excludes a lot of people. In fact, Stanford is SO PROUD of this new guide they made it public! Oh wait, they took the list private because they know it’s absurd and problematic.
A final example: One can no longer refer to someone as African American. Nope, the list informs us that we should refer to them as Black. However, the words blackball, blacklist, and black sheep cannot be used as it conveys a negative connotations to the color….BLACK. Stanford even went as far as to put in bold black colors a content warning about harmful language in the list!
This is where we are. Colleges putting together lists so people can wander around planning on being perpetually offended.
John Cleese is correct in that wokeism is killing comedy and creativity. It’s also killing critical thinking and actual learning as evidenced by Stanford’s new language list that defines American as a bad word.
Stanford’s woke thought police can go pound sand. This writer refers to herself as American woman, wife, and mother… and always will.
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Feature Photo Credit: American flag and eagle via Pixabay, cropped and modified
American Human says: I’m an American Grandfather and Stanford can go pound sand for all I care.
And may I quote George Orwell:
“Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them”
GWB says: “historically, masters enslaved people.”
Ummm, no, that’s not true. It denotes someone in charge with others who answer to them. That could be paid servants, workers, apprentices, or slaves. Also, slavery is a broad term, encompassing a span from indentured servitude to chattel slavery. It does not solely denote the chattel slavery we eliminated in the mid-1800s in America (oops). In the context of someone who is “master” in all things, yes, that denoted either slavery of some sort or aristocracy. You know, “elites”? /eyeroll/
And don’t dare design a “blind study,”
So, they’ve never heard of “blinders”? Which only restrict the vision to directly ahead. So the animal can’t see anything it’s not intended to see, which might impinge upon it doing what it’s supposed to do. You people are idiots, and certainly not etymologists.
WHY those words would be harmful is incredibly lame
Can the Germans still use “halt”? After all, the old phrase was “the lame and the halt.”
they are “devoted” to their drug of choice
Uh, no, they are not. A ‘devotee’ can quit. An ‘addict’ can’t. That’s kinda the point of the word.
‘Hey there! Long time no see!’ … might offend someone of Chinese descent.
WTF?! Because all Chinese people would think we were slighting their pidgin English? Sorry, should I say “Engrish” so all those dumb “Chinee” know what I’m saying? Talk about the soft bigotry of very low expectations!
“gender-based” terms like “landlord”
“Land” is gendered now? Because “lord” certainly isn’t, except in the mists of ancient good English (as contrasted to “lady”).
“gender-based” terms like … “mankind.”
And, once again, if you don’t know what a word means, you should probably shut up about being offended by it.
“Man” means “all humans everywhere.” Because it’s a translation (transmutation?) of “Adam” from whom all “men” are descended, regardless of their gender or sex. it’s simply a sound grouping identifying all of us, as opposed to beasts of the field, birds of the air, fish in the sea, or things that crawl along the ground, etc.
If anything, “mankind” is a weasel word to distinguish “man” as the entire race from “a man” or “men” as plurals of the male sex.
because “that suggests non-binary gender identity is a choice.”
Well, if you don’t believe it is, then you are probably a Progressively educated imbecile and should not be allowed out of the house without a minder, have corks put on the tines of your forks so you don’t put your eye out while eating. [Quick, what movie reference is that?]
Americans can no longer be referred to as brave
Ummmm, that word existed LONG before Europeans even knew there was a North America and natives who lived here. (Or am I assuming too much to think it’s a racial offense?)
leaves a lot of other countries out in the cold such as Canada…
ISWYDT 😉
the list informs us that we should refer to them as Black
Oh? So I can go back to practicing my Spanish then? And call them negroes?
And so the insanity of mankind brings the blind back around full circle, once again. Doomed to repeat history because they refuse to read and understand it.
Remember, though, ‘Wokeism” does not stand on its own! It is merely the Inquisition for the fundamentalist Progressive Church. And, unlike many, I’ve always expected the Inquisition!
Cameron says: I don’t waste time worrying what lesser people think and I don’t bother policing my speech just to soothe their inadequacies.
Carol Marks says: How long before the AP Stylebook gets a hold on this and then the big media using it.
Hate_me says: I love how Orwellian it is to blacklist “blacklist.”
In addition to all of the other poor scholarship pointed out above, a phrase like “balls to the wall” has nothing to do with genitalia, but with the balls on top of the joystick and throttle – it’s the aviation equivalent of “pedal to the metal” (incidentally, “balls out” is the locomotive equivalent and refers to the balls on a centrifugal governor).
Scott says: Shhh.. those are facts, and the left doesn’t do well facts.
Ralph Gizzip says: I wonder if Dr. Rice has any comment on all this idiocy?
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