Mask of tolerance: The British Museum banned the word “mummy” as not respectful enough

And here is another expert: the American Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), recently published on its official website a list of words that should not be used and which should be used instead. For example, one cannot say the word “prisoner”, but one should say “a person placed in custody.” You can’t say “drug addict”, but you should say “a person who uses drugs”. You can’t say “poor people”, but you should say “people with incomes below the federal poverty level”. Instead of “illegal immigrant” you should say “person with undocumented status”. Well, and so on. All this as if in order not to offend alcoholics, not to offend drug addicts, not to offend prisoners and illegal immigrants.

On the other hand, instead of “Native American”, you should now say “American Indian” – that is, Indians have been lowered in the hierarchy of respect, and it can be assumed with a high degree of probability that they will soon stop being Indians, because it “may offend” either themselves, or Indians – someone certainly can.

Finally, in the final block of the CDC briefing, there are instructions on how to avoid using the words “biological male” and “biological female” and how transgender people should be called. However, the very word “transgender” is already on the verge of prohibition, it can be used, but it is preferable to say “gender diverse”, or “non-binary”, or “person with intersex features”, and the pronoun applicable to such a person is “they”.

But enough of the American expertise. How does all this fit into our soil? And it fits great! Isn’t the simple familiar word “school” replaced in our administrative lexicon by the terrifying abbreviation MBOU SOSH? Is there no gibberish like “IKO GKU TsZN” on street signs? If you need a simpler example – why was it necessary to replace the word “student” with the word “student”?

But in America, this is all done for sure out of great concern! Not to offend anyone! And we have something with other goals!

Well, let’s think about goals. This is, firstly, the creation of a special bureaucratic language, an opaque language of the chosen community. These texts are not intended to be broadly and simply understood, but they are intended to cram as much information as possible that is significant from the point of view of an official (or as with a “learner”, to be specific, terminally). Incidentally, the impenetrability of bureaucratic language is not only a Russian problem. New Zealand even passed the Plain Language Act last fall to require officials to speak clearly.

But now you can always add to this the administrative requirement “not to offend anyone.” It is assumed that if instead of one word that falls exactly into the pocket, you perform ritual jumps from words, it will not be offensive. For nothing but common sense. But you can think about it last.

So, why is “disabled person” offensive, but “person with a disability” is not offensive? But because, they will tell you, “disabled person” is like a label and a permanent defining feature, and “disability” is only an appendix to “person.” And if you are told this, you would prefer to agree – not with an argument, no. You will agree with intonation, with emotional pressure, you will prefer “not to offend anyone.” In other words, you will succumb to emotional blackmail.

In fact, a person is not defined by one word. He can be a disabled person, a healthy person (even a healthy disabled person), a kind person, an alcoholic, a teetotaler, a swindler, a genius, a silent man, a merry fellow, a book reader, a gamer, a know-it-all, a truth-lover, the soul of a company … The one who tells you that, uttering the word “disabled ”, you stick a label, in fact, it does this: it selects only one from the whole huge circle of signs. It is he who mentally sticks the label – and he himself is afraid of this – and not you.

And I would not go into these psychological vicissitudes if they did not acquire a global scale right before our eyes. Entire societies become victims of emotional blackmail – I will add: societies consisting of people who are the most neurotic. The fact is that the process of banning words has no end. It’s not that the regulatory agency will issue one instruction once and for all – and then calm down. No, time will pass (and even a very short one) as words marked as harmless in the old list will acquire features of use and may seem offensive to someone. And they will write you a new list – up to the point of absurdity, up to the prohibition of “disrespect” for mummies.

This, I repeat, will always happen, for a very simple and inevitable reason: when using words, people put more than one meaning into them. Words are multidimensional, Aesopian language is built on this, when we write one thing and mean another. And readers understand what we want to say. Even given that we live in difficult times for writers, when they happen to write in capital letters “SARKASM” in order for the reader to recognize sarcasm – even with this, the words remain – and always will be – multidimensional, dependent on use, changeable.

And therefore, in order not to be included in the neurotic round dance, do not allow yourself to be emotionally blackmailed. Don’t let anyone tell you that you’re offending someone if you didn’t really mean it. In the end, whether someone was offended by you – you probably don’t know this, but what you didn’t want to offend (if you really didn’t want to) – you know for sure.

In a curious way, the propaganda of the ban on “hurtful words” echoes the propaganda of forced masks: there is also the main argument “you can infect someone”, but moreover, you never know for sure, but the fact that the mask causes (if it causes) inconvenience to you , you know for sure. With this similarity in mind, it’s no wonder why the US top medical regulator, who was in charge of the Covid-19 pandemic, is in charge of banning words in the US. Because the management style is the same, universal: emotional blackmail.

It’s not that you should never do this, this manipulation is no worse than the others, but at least you should see it. So far, women are being replaced by “menstruating persons” in the so-called “civilized countries”, but there is no doubt: these persons will try to come to us.