Words For The Day

Don’t Be Anti-Semantic

February 28, 2021

Sometimes it is best to be precise with language. We are all familiar with the Bush II-era Orwellian “Clean Air Act” that was anything but - just one example among too many to mention. Many on the right have taken the dire warning of Orwell’s 1984 instead as a handbook on how to weaponize language.

Despite our best efforts, what we say and what any given listener hears are not always exactly the same thing. This is unavoidable. However, it is still worthwhile to try our best to minimize the potential for misunderstanding. Especially when one party is purposely ignorant and/or delusional. Today’s focus is on some descriptive phrases we at Paying Attention believe need to be etched in electronic stone, and become common parlance for journalists and the populace at large in an effort to keep our language clean, our heads straight and the wolves at bay.

Climate Crisis

Different phraseology has been used to describe the dramatic changes in the Earth’s long-term weather patterns, which have been irrefutably proven to be caused in no small part by human activity, and which have led to drastic and deadly weather events across the globe. It is not global warming; after all, there are snowballs.

And idiots with snowballs in February in the Senate

Pictured here, Sen. Jim Inhoffe (R-not OK)

It is not climate change; most people are simply either too stupid or too misinformed to grasp the nuance of the fact that the planet's climate is undergoing unnatural, largely human-caused changes. Some places get hotter, some colder, some wetter, some drier. None of it is good, and denying its reality does not exempt anyone from suffering its consequences. On top of all that, the situation is simply and obviously nothing less than a crisis.

Radical Right-Wing Terrorists

They could just as easily be called Radical White-Wing Terrorists. They have gone beyond being good old-fashioned insurrectionists. According to the Congressional testimony of acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman, we learned of threats (Plans?) to “blow up the Capitol and kill as many members as possible with a direct nexus to the State of the Union” during Joe Biden’s upcoming State of the Union address, currently planned for some time in March.

Turmp-inspired radical white wing terrorists attack Capitol

Or perhaps Turmp’s army of mental defectives will attack on March 4^th, the day these deranged douchebags have decided that their Lard and Savior Don Turmp will finally be restored to the throne and Joe Biden (and one imagines, all Democrats…and blacks…and Jews) will be locked up for treason. Or simply killed, just to be on the safe side. Final solution 2.0.

Mitch Fucking McConnell

Many people are unaware of Moscow Mitch’s middle name. It’s not that he is not proud of it. It really is not surprising, after all, he has been having his way with our democracy for far too many years now.

McConnell voted not to acquit TWICE IMPEACHED ex-Fake president Turmp after the latter’s second impeachment trial for inciting the violent January 6^th assault on the Capitol. After the reprehensible vote to acquit, Mitch Fucking McConnell immediately took to the floor of the Senate and pretended he believed Turmp should be processed through the criminal justice system for the crimes McConnell pretended he believed were committed by the leader of his party; you know, the ones Mitch Fucking McConnell had just voted to ignore.

Although it is not uncommon to hear people refer to the soulless ghoul from Kentucky as Fucking Mitch McConnell, this is incorrect, though no less appropriate. In this case it is probably acceptable to use either variation.

More recently Mitch was asked if would support Turmp if the disgraced fascist who tried to incite his cult members to overthrow the duly elected government of the United States once again became the nominee of the humiliated Ratpublican Party in 2024. Asked if he would support the nominee of his fascist, racist party, the man McConnell said was “practically and morally responsible for provoking the [January 6^th terrorist assault on the Capitol], no doubt about it”, McConnell’s response was, “The nominee of the party? Absolutely.” Mitch Fucking McConnell is always prepared to take a principled stand on being unwaveringly unprincipled.

Neera Tanden was chastised, and her nomination as Director of the Office of Management and Budget scuttled in part for accurately referring to Fucking McConnell as “Moscow Mitch.” Everyone knows it is more respectful to refer to him as Moscow Mitch Fucking McConnell. Hopefully, Tanden will do better going forward.

Admittedly, this one might be a bit harder to get past censors on most news programs, but does not make it any less important for codifying it into the vernacular and bringing further clarity and precision to our everyday discourse.

Some General Semantic Rules Of Engagement

It is not wrong to call a fascist a fascist. No need to be shy about calling a racist a racist. And do not be afraid to admit that a Nazi symbol is a Nazi symbol, even when it shows up where big names in the Ratpublican Party gather to spew racist, fascist bullshit. Make no mistake it is now, more than ever, the Republican/National Fascist  Party. Remember, not all white supremacists are neo-Nazis, but all neo-Nazis are white supremacists, and not all Ratpublicans are neo-Nazis, but all neo-Nazis are Ratpublicans. And all white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and a majority of all Ratpublicans worship Turmp. Does anyone really notsee what is going on here?

CPAC stage in the shape of an Odal rune symbol worn by Nazi SS guards

and still in use by neo-Nazis. Any questions?

These have been Paying Attention's Words For The Day.

You're welcome.

Do you have any words for the day?