The radical left has gradually taken over all major institutions in America over the last 50 years, almost without resistance. How could this happen? They did it by weaponizing language, cleverly changing definitions of well-established words, and counting on people not noticing. In this way, they could introduce extremism hidden behind seemingly innocent banners.
Critical Thinking
You’ve undoubtedly heard someone say how important critical thinking is, and to you, it probably means not to accept claims on faith but evaluate the evidence rationally. However, that’s not what radical leftists mean by “critical.” They define it as relentless negativity toward systems of oppression, and the term is almost synonymous with “negative” and “destructive.”
Fighting oppression sounds like a laudable goal until you realize that they define oppression as anything that isn’t communist utopia. Thus, when you hear smiling teachers say that it is essential to teach your kids critical thinking, it might mean they secretly plan to indoctrinate students to hate and criticize America and tear down every institution that you love and value.
This usage of the word “critical” goes back to 19th-century German philosophy. Its modern incarnation stems from the so-called Frankfurt School, upon which the modern radical American left is built. It created Critical Theory that spawned Critical Race Theory and Critical Pedagogy.
Racism
Racism is often thought of as discrimination based on skin color, but the radical left defines it as privilege plus power. Therefore, a non-white person can never be racist, and white people always are. According to East Side Community School in Lower Manhattan, the only path to salvation is to be a “white traitor.”
White Supremacy
How can leftists claim that all white people are privileged? They answer that America is a system built on white supremacy. In your mind, images of the Ku Klux Klan might flash before your eyes when you hear such an allegation. However, the radical left secretly means the system of private property, logic, empiricism, linear thinking, being on time, science, and meritocracy. It implies that almost everyone in America is a “white supremacist.”
You don’t have to be white to be a white supremacist. Los Angeles Times called Larry Elder the “black face of white supremacy” during the Californian gubernatorial recall election in 2021. That’s because Elder wants a colorblind society based on meritocracy. According to leftist logic, it is a “power structure” that “privileges whiteness” and, therefore, is racist.
Black Lives Matter
Imagine a gang of young, male criminals in New York named Frail Old Grandmothers. Whenever people complain about its violent crimes, the group defends itself by saying, “why do you hate frail old grandmothers? That’s misogynist, ableist, and ageist!” It’s a brilliant brand to weaponize people’s compassion.
Now imagine a group of self-avowed “trained Marxists,” whose stated goal is to disrupt America’s “Western prescribed nuclear family structure,” called themselves Black Lives Matter. The only black lives they care about happen to be criminals killed during encounters with the police. Whenever people complain about Black Lives Matter destroying property and harming people in violent riots, their members respond, “don’t you think that black lives matter? That’s racist and white supremacist!” You would be right to think they are playing subversive word games.
Subversion
These redefinitions are part of a spiderweb of subversive language generated by ideologues in academia. They are not accidents or innocent oversights, and we know this because there are volumes of papers and books describing the importance of this strategy to fight the “systems of oppression.”
Radical leftists openly admitted that they could not win in an honest debate with rational arguments and facts. Subversion and “the long march through the institutions” were the only ways to win. The reason that capitalism was winning, they claimed, was because the oppressors had been able to establish a cultural “hegemony” to indoctrinate children from an early age to enjoy capitalism, religion, and the nuclear family.
To win, they had to destroy these institutions. Part of the strategy was to weaponize language. If they could label anyone who disagreed as misogynist, racist, sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic, transphobic, white supremacist – or any other label in the basket of deplorables – leftists could silence the opposition and claim victory. However, logic, empiricism, and truth are not on their side.
The next time you hear a leftist use the word “critical,” think “destructive.” When you hear the comment “racist,” think “advocate of property rights,” and when you hear “white supremacy,” think “being on time.” It enables you to see through the fog of war.
~ Read more from Caroline Adana.
