march towards a bleak totalitarian future. Reading straight from the 1984 playbook, they are emulating Newspeak with the creation of portmanteau words such as ‘hatefact’, Trumpwave’ or ‘Weimerica’. And don’t get them started on ‘normies’ (anyone other than themselves), ‘femoids’ (a term to denote the sub-human attributes of women), or ‘warmists’ (yes, you guessed it! Those fools who believe global warming is a real phenomenon caused by human activity). The global adoption of the internet over 20 years ago has proved a boon for the spread of this ideology, and the flames are being fanned by some powerful people to suit their own agenda of pushing governments to the right, paving the way for deregulation. It is always easier for a movement of aggression to outgrow one of peace by the very nature of the methods deployed.
If we accept this new language without challenge, the dripping tap effect could make Nazis of us all. I hope, dear reader, that while perusing this article you recognised some of the emotive and sardonic devices that I have used in an attempt to get you onside with my opinions. After all, fact-based articles are so last century… But seriously, please question the motivation of everything, rather than accepting it at face value. For further reading, please see the following lexicons of far-right terminology: https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Alt-right_glossary https://www.npr org/2017/09/06/548858850/-ghostskins-and-masculinity-alt-right-terms-defined
We owe it to ourselves and to those that we care about to familiarise ourselves with the language of hate, so that we recognise it when we see it, and make sure that we don’t further its spread or normalise it by using it ourselves whilst attempting to lazily shut down an argument.
Angela Melling 22