It’s not mother; it’s “birthing person.” It’s not woman; it’s “menstruating person.” It’s not drug addict; it’s “a person with a substance use disorder.”
The left has made many attempts to bend both language and reality to suit their political needs and cater to a fringe of sensitive activists who are miffed by any word, phrase, or sentence that isn’t sensitive enough for their ears.
The National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, wanted to replace “mother” with “birthing parent.” Left-wing Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts previously co-sponsored the Health Equity and Accountability Act, which referred to breastfeeding as “chestfeeding.” Similarly, in 2023, the Biden administration’s Customs and Border Protection sent an email to alert personnel to “National Breast/Chestfeeding Awareness Month.” And, perhaps most famously, Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez referred to women as “people who do give birth” and “any menstruating person.”
Now, liberal activists are coming for the phrase “drug addict.”
Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and her administration are sneakily playing language police in a new budget proposal unveiled Tuesday that addresses the state’s opioid crisis, the New York Post reported Wednesday. Now, instead of the label “addict” or “habitual user,” Hochul insists we use “person with a substance use disorder.” (Subscribe to MR. RIGHT, a weekly newsletter about modern masculinity)
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks about gun violence in the United States during the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) on September 23, 2024 in New York City. Coinciding with the U.N. General Assembly, the Clinton Global Initiative brings together business, government, and civil society leaders to drive progress on humanitarian response efforts to global crises. (Photo by Alex Kent/Getty Images)
“The bill also removes stigmatizing language in multiple areas of law by replacing an addict or a habitual user of any narcotic drug with ‘a person with a substance use disorder,’” a budget memo states, according to the New York Post.
Of course, Kathy Hochul is devoting energy to woke language policing. Even if it is something as minor as the phrase “drug addict,” the left’s demand that we use their terms or otherwise we’re backwards bigots is what gave wokeness its power to begin with. It allowed the left to nitpick and distract from actual problems at hand, giving them power to frame policy debates in silly language games. It also enabled radical activists who should be nowhere near the levers of power to coerce and bully otherwise normal, sane people in government to support their unhinged agenda.
Perhaps, Hochul’s administration should spend less time policing language and more time policing the subways in New York City.
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This article was originally published at dailycaller.com
