The BBC changed the testimony of a rape victim after a debate over the pronouns of her transgender attacker, The Times has learnt. The woman referred to her alleged rapist as “him” but insiders said that her words were changed to avoid “misgendering” the abuser in an article on the corporation’s website. [More]
♫ It’s a mixed-up, muddled up, shook up world except for Lola… ♫
We don’t want to microaggress against macroaggressors, now, do we? That might result in retaliation from those who consider the truth condescending and discriminatory. Not to mention more confusion for the African tribesmen…
[Via Michael G]
I’m old enough to remember when “newspeak” was just a plot device in a book.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspeak
“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten. Already, in the Eleventh Edition, we’re not far from that point. But the process will still be continuing long after you and I are dead. Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller. Even now, there’s no reason or excuse for committing thoughtcrime. It’s merely a question of self-discipline, reality-control. The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect. Newspeak is Ingsoc and Ingsoc is Newspeak,” he added with a sort of mystical satisfaction.” — George Orwell, 1984