June 4, 2016

A Modest Suggestion for Pruning the English Language

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I recommend that the following two words be officially removed from the English language:

  • Neoliberal
  • Fascist

The purpose of words is to facilitate the communication of thoughts between human beings. I have conducted exhaustive research1 on Twitter and other popular social networks which conclusively proves that these two collections of phonemes now do the opposite of that. They are therefore not words. Let’s stop using them.

1Forthcoming in the Journal of Demotic Memes and Dialectics.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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