George Orwell called it “newspeak” in his classic dystopian novel 1984. Newspeak was a controlled language of restricted grammar and limited vocabulary, which was meant to severely limit freedom of thought, personal identity, self-expression and free will that might somehow threaten the regime of Big Brother and the Party.
And now newspeak is being used by the Trump administration, proving that their aim is, at least partially, control over language and thought as a means of imposing their will on the country.
The Washington Post reports that effective immediately, seven words are not allowed to be used in official documents:
“Policy analysts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were told of the list of forbidden words at a meeting Thursday with senior CDC officials who oversee the budget, according to an analyst who took part in the 90-minute briefing. The forbidden words are ‘vulnerable,’ ‘entitlement,’ ‘diversity,’ ‘transgender,’ ‘fetus’” ‘evidence-based,’ and ‘science-based.’
In some instances, the analysts were given alternative phrases. Instead of ‘science-based’ or ’evidence-based,’ the suggested phrase is ‘CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes,’ the person said. In other cases, no replacement words were immediately offered.”
A CDC analyst said reaction among members of the agency when told of the forbidden words was disbelief:
“It was very much, ‘Are you serious? Are you kidding?’ In my experience, we’ve never had any pushback from an ideological standpoint.”
The list of banned words given to the CDC is just the latest attack on facts and science from the Trump White House. Trump himself said climate change is a hoax and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared at his confirmation hearings that global warming is not verifiable.
The CDC has an annual budget of over $7 billion and employs more than 12,000 people. It works on issues ranging from food and water safety to cancer and infectious disease outbreak prevention across the world.
Featured Image Via CDC.
