Back in March I explored conflicting perceptions of the meaning of “woke” and “racism” as applied to the original Star Trek, describing social media as “a gold mine of jargon” that means different things to different people. Today I’d like to take a look at other terminology that obstructs political discussion.
Alan K. Henderson
Not-Quite-Random Columbus Day Musings
Who were the most geopolitically significant individuals in world history? Columbus is the first obvious example, given the holiday. He served as the catalyst for the Western migration to the Americas. Who else ranks up there? The first three names that come to mind are Jesus, Mohammed, and Karl Marx, the founders of Western civilization, Islamic civilization, and world Communism, respectively. Communism is relatively new compared too many past civilizations, but the scale of its global impact far exceeds that of the greatest individual empires. Any other nominations?
He Who Must Not Be Named
Now that Mark Zuckerberg has admitted to caving to government pressure to censor Facebook users’ remarks about COVID policy and to suppress the story about Hunter Biden’s laptop and its incriminating emails, maybe it would be a good idea to revisit the policy of Facebook, YouTube and others to ban the mere mention of the name Eric Ciaramella, the CIA analyst rumored to be the whistleblower involved in Trump’s first impeachment. The New York Times profiled the whistleblower without naming names, and a number of journalists found one guy who fit the description. For whatever reasons, various platforms insist that if someone is rumored to be a government whistleblower, the person must receive absolutely no public mention under any circumstances or in any context whatsoever.
Ukraine On My Mind
I’ve been pondering this thought: would it have made any difference to NATO lend-lease agreements with Ukraine if Obama had not scuttled the planned missile defense system to be deployed in Poland? Certainly sea-based and fixed locations couldn’t be sent over to Ukraine, but what about mobile launchers – and the missiles themselves?