Language Matters: there is something Orwellian about describing political or religious views in terms usually employed for mental illness

by sheikyermami on November 29, 2012

AP ends the use of “ Islamophobia, Homophobia “

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoghlu seen shrieking hysterically:

“If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, then what must be done remains undone; if this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate; if justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion. Hence there must be no arbitrariness in what is said. This matters above everything.” Confucius quotes (China’s most famous teacher, philosopher, and political theorist, 551-479 BC)

AP Under Attack for Removing Islamophobia, Homophobia from Stylebook

Posted By Daniel Greenfield In The Point

First the Associated Press announced that it would continue using “Illegal Alien” instead of “Undocumented American”, “Accidental Border Crosser” or “Beautiful Dreamer” on the grounds that it was well… technically accurate.

Now the AP is throwing out Homophobia and Islamophobia on the grounds that they are inaccurate and conflate prejudice with mental illness. And that has led to outrage hysteria from the usual organs of the left who like sticking to their politicized words once they’ve made enough people aware of them.

“Ethnic cleansing is a euphemism for pretty violent activities, a phobia is a psychiatric or medical term for a severe mental disorder. Those terms have been used quite a bit in the past, and we don’t feel that’s quite accurate,” AP Deputy Standards Editor Dave Minthorn said.

Again, that is accurate, despite the progressive response that adding phobia as a suffix allows it to mean a completely different thing.

The Associated Press is not taking a conservative position here, but we have reached such a point of cultural decay that fact-based positions that derive their grounds from reason and proof are already innately conservative. Or as George Orwell put it, “We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.”

The left’s counterattack on behalf of homophobia is already irrational, even from the standpoint of their own interests, because it communicates mental problems when the goal is to communicate bigotry.

Slate argues that homophobia is just like arachnophobia. The argument is wrong on a number of levels. The most simple level where it’s wrong is that the subject under discussion is not even fear. It’s dislike. The Guardian and several other media outlets have churned out pieces arguing that dislike of homosexuality is primarily motivated by fear. But that’s an opinion and the very argument testifies to a news media that is hardly able to distinguish fact-based reporting from opinion-mongering.

Finally there is something Orwellian about describing political or religious views in terms usually employed for mental illness. It skips past discussing what people believe or do to claiming intimate knowledge of their motives and passing judgement on their sanity. It’s reasonable for the AP to opt out of such heavily politicized and inaccurate language that claims to report on the state of mental health, rather than the state of events.

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{ 3 comments }

Jennifer in Oz November 29, 2012 at 10:54 pm: After a detailed study of Islam I have made a rational and well founded opinion to detest and oppose the ideology on the grounds that it evil, and the Koran a handbook for psychopaths and masochists.
aussiegirl December 2, 2012 at 10:12 am: the muslim in this article with the unpronounceable name, is mentally unstable. I have heard his arguments about islamophobia, his lies, so its good to see AP turn away from usual narrative pushed by the islamists and the progressives… WELL DONE AP
sheikyermami December 4, 2012 at 6:17 pm: Relief for the Phobiaphobic

by Kathy Shaidle

For right-wingers, November proved to be the cruelest month in quite some time.

The Kenyan Klepto won the White House again. Speaking of democracy: Here in Toronto, our most conservative mayor in living memory—one elected in what passes these days for a landslide—was kicked out of office by a lone (lefty) judge for the crime of using the wrong stationery.

Rush Limbaugh (!) inched closer to endorsing amnesty, and the UN recognized “Palestine.” (What next? Narnia?)

There was one bright spot: Those of us suffering from chronic phobiaphobia learned that a cure was in reach.

The Associated Press announced that it was cutting the words “homophobia” and “Islamophobia” out of its gold-standard stylebook.

AP Deputy Standards Editor Dave Minthorn explained:

‘Homophobia’ especially—it’s just off the mark. It’s ascribing a mental disability to someone, and suggests a knowledge that we don’t have. It seems inaccurate. Instead, we would use something more neutral: anti-gay, or some such, if we had reason to believe that was the case.

Pedantic geezers around the nation could practically be heard muttering, “Gee, thanks for coming out.” We’ve been thanklessly making this same argument since forever: The idea that we’re “afraid” of gays is laughable, but more importantly, allowing the elites to categorize unpopular opinions as mental illnesses is the sort of Stalinesque junk science that criminalizes common sense and ruins lives.

“Allowing the elites to categorize unpopular opinions as mental illnesses is the sort of Stalinesque junk science that criminalizes common sense and ruins lives.”
For our troubles, we’ve been denounced as bigoted boors.

Take Canadian radio host and relentless pest Kari Sampson, who took on the Vancouver School Board for letting the word “homophobia” get slung around at public meetings. Cleverly cloaking a conservative argument in fluent “left-ese,” she wrote to the Chair:

The terms “homophobe”, “homophobic” and “homophobia” are well-known hateful words, typically rooted in bigotry or ignorance and used to target, demean and bully into silence and compliance individuals and/or groups opposed to the public dissemination of false and propagandist information related to homosexuality and other allegedly “fluid” sexual determinations.

Sampson then raised the bar, demanding that the provincial Ministry of Education itself stop using the term, too. Apparently, this one-woman semantic jujutsu master has made her mark. Those damn liberals are right: One person can make a difference, provided they can withstand the abuse from their “tolerant” opponents.

So “homophobia,” while not quite dead yet, is certainly in the hospice, wrapped in a red ribbon quilt. Let’s call it a priapic victory.

“Islamophobia” will prove a tougher demon to exorcise. After all, as annoying as they are, angry gays (unless they’re serial killers) typically limit themselves to direct or indirect suicide. Pissed-off Muslims vastly outnumber homosexuals (not incidentally because they keep killing them) and aren’t averse to murdering others to get their own way.

It’s not true that the powerful Muslim Brotherhood invented this ingenious variation on “xenophobia,” which automatically raises every dumb white infidel’s guilty feelings to bell-ringing levels. And when it works, it’s the Muslim who wins the prize in the form of everything from generous if unnecessary “security infrastructure” grants to virtual “get out of jail free” cards.

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