In understanding the ‘culture war,’ it is important to know key terminology. Semantics, or the use of words, matters. In fact, it is the left-wing progressive side who are changing the culture by creating a new vocabulary. In all honesty, some of the terminology can be misleading, but it has be utilised to great effectiveness to bring massive cultural changes that would have been unthinkable a few decades ago. The following is a partial list of some of the key terms. Once you understand the language, you will be better equipped to engage with the culture and win – with God’s help, of course.
ALT-RIGHT/ALT-LEFT
The ‘alt-right’ are found in the conservative movement who allegedly support ‘extreme right-wing’ political positions. These can be highly nationalistic and racist, like anti-black, anti-Jewish positions. Those who hold extreme left-wing views are called ‘alt-left.’
ANTIFASCIST
Fascism is considered to be an authoritarian, in some cases, totalitarian system that suppresses dissent, controls private business, and is strongly nationalistic, oppressive and intolerant. While some call fascism ‘extreme right-wing,’ that point is debatable. Hitler’s Nazis were called ‘National Socialists,’ which are more akin to the Left (socialism) than Right. ‘Antifascist’ opposes ‘fascism’ and their name has been shortened to ‘antifa.’ If they believe a speaker is ‘fascist’ and thus ‘harmful,’ they are ready to use vandalism and violence to physically close down a meeting to stop that person from speaking in public.
FREE SPEECH
A fundamental human-right, free speech has been a bedrock of modern western civilisation. Sometimes called ‘freedom of expression,’ free speech is recognised in Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Essentially, it means the right for a person or community to share their ideas and opinions without fear, censorship or sanction. Not all speech is ‘free:’ Defamation, vilification, and perjury are condemned and in some cases punishable by law. However, the progressives have introduced a new term: ‘Hate Speech,’ and they argue that it must be stopped, no matter what.
HATE SPEECH
It is described as speech which attacks individuals or communities on the basis race, creed, gender, nationality, ethnicity, or sexual orientation, with the purpose to humiliate, vilify, or incite violence. Some countries have hate speech laws, others do not recognise it legally, and the United States constitutionally protects ‘hate speech.’ While the notion of viciously attacking people is repugnant, the concern is of a low-bar or elastic interpretation of what constitutes hate speech: e.g. criticism of the political agenda of a certain group has been loosely called ‘hate speech.’ Wrongly handled, hate speech laws can extinguish free speech protections. If freedom of speech goes, so do all other freedoms.
IDENTITY POLITICS
Where a particular ethnic, religious, social group, professional, civil rights and/or cultural group joins in an exclusive political alliance for the purpose of advocating their cause, or highlighting their grievances. This is done at the expense of normal, inclusive major party politics, or they join in coalition with such a party. Identity politics exempts the individual from being responsible for their actions, since until recently their minority status made them victims of oppression.
MARGINALIZE
To marginalise means to take an individual or group and sideline them, or keep them in the periphery, so as to render them powerless. Racial, gender, and sexual minorities have been marginalised in the past and even though there have been great strides in civil and human rights, some of these same groups still claim to be disadvantaged by marginalisation.
MICROAGRESSION
These are perceived indignities in word or physical actions between various cultures, races, genders, or theologies that are interpreted as negative, hostile, or insulting aggressions, whether they are intended to be or not. These things are usually ‘small-scale’ (hence ‘micro’) interactions.
POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
Based on the fear of theoretically offending a marginalised group, political correctness controls speech by enforcing a new vocabulary that neutralises offence or refuses to label people altogether. While considered a product of postmodernism, there is a case to say that it began long before in-between the two world wars. The cultural Marxists of the Frankfurt school are credited with promoting political correctness. Failure to conform to political correctness can result in censure, ostracism, a torrent of abuse, or force attendance to ‘sensitivity classes.’
PRIVILEGE
This speaks of a special status given to certain people like males, whites, and Christians, often done at the expense of non-whites and non-males and non-Christians.
PRONOUNS
These are normally the words like ‘You,’ ‘Me,’ ‘He,’ and ‘She,’ instead of the noun of a proper name. In the transgender movement, it is expected to use the pronoun the person wants, rather than to assume they are a ‘he’ or ‘she’ due to their looks or name.
RAPE CULTURE
Sexual assault and rape, which are two heinous crimes, are said to be sanitised, normalised, or trivialised with an attitude of blaming the victim, denying that rape is an issue, or failure to see the harm done by rape. These views are said to be facilitated by the ‘rape culture.’
SAFE SPACE
‘Safe space’ is like a refuge where (once) embattled racial and sexual minorities can go and be protected from harm. Also known as positive space, ‘safe space’ is found on university campuses. The ‘harm’ people are protected from includes things like harassment, discrimination, unfair criticism or anything else that would cause physical or emotional stress. ‘Safe space’ can also simply mean shielding people from hearing ideas they don’t like, even if there are no insults or injuries intended or levied. Offering this at university level hinders the educational process by failing to expose students to a variety of positions.
SNOWFLAKE
A pejorative term used to describe a person who is thin-skinned, hypersensitive, emotionally fragile, feels especially unique and has a high sense of entitlement due to their uniqueness.
TRIGGER WARNING
This can be related to literary text or videos, where a warning is given that the content may offend some individuals, especially if they have experienced such an event. Or, it simply means someone who reacts, sometimes excessively, even to the most mild of stimuli.
WESTERN CIVILISATION
Birthed in Europe, Western Civilisation is based on the twin pillars of 1) Greco-Roman heritage and culture and 2) Judea-Christian ethics and theology. The combination of these two pillars brought to the world the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, the Industrial and scientific revolutions, and the institution of liberal democracy and human rights. While these things should be celebrated, secular progressives often castigate western civilisation as being dominated by ‘white, male Christians’ at the expense of women, non-white races, and sexual minorities.
Our next article will explore more terminology involving the culture war. Stay tuned.