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Stop Saying DEI. It’s Really Civil Rights.
We’re here. We’re queer. We will not be silenced. We can no longer allow the Right to weaponize our own terminology.
As a writer, I love language. To me, words are gold nuggets, packed with value, meaning, and power.
But when you’re losing battle after battle to people who don’t value language and meaning, or especially truth, it might be time to step back and re-evaluate.
And, when a certain uncompromising posture — as highly principled as it might be — actually becomes counterproductive to your cause, perhaps it’s time to seek more effective alternatives.
And, when there’s an obvious alternative that gives you the upper hand, you’d be well advised to grab it.
Weaponized language
If there’s anything the Right does extremely well, it’s co-opting the language of the Left, twisting its intended meaning, weaponizing it, and turning it back against those who originated it for good cause in the first place.
The word socialism, for example, has for decades been tainted by conservatives as equivalent to communism. Although the two economic theories have aspects in common, they are not the same.
