The Left’s War on Language: ‘Illegal’ and What it Means

People rally outside the Statehouse, Wednesday, June 20, 2018, in Boston, to protest how immigrants are being treated both on the border with Mexico and in Massachusetts. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

As a writer, I depend on other writers. So do…other writers.

I’m not out on the street, with a notepad in my pocket and a pencil in my ear. Neither are the vast majority of people writing these days.

We glean from one another. We research. We find information on the web, in newspapers, in reports, in books, in magazines, or other places.

And lately, getting clear facts has become more difficult than ever, thanks to the left-wing bent of even supposedly right-wing journalists (please see this).

What is a migrant?

What is an immigrant?

What is an asylum seeker?

These are confusing terms, when used to mean something at best more specific and at worst wholly different.

When euphemisms are employed for those breaking the law, not only is the notion of law diminished, but the clarity of the story suffers significantly.

Go on social media right now: I guarantee you can find someone who believes those seeking asylum have to sneak across the border and be put in a cage. Why do they think that? Partly due to the media’s unwillingness to use proper terms even when it obstructs the facts.

People seeking asylum can do so at a port of entry.

But not according to the stories I read.

If the numerous articles regarding family separation are to be believed, “migrants” are being captured and put in cages.

If someone breaks into your house, are they a domestic “migrant?” Is that a fair description?

At times, I find myself exerting ridiculous effort to get to the reality of a story, so I can relay it. What is this person? Someone running from execution in their home country, someone just wandering the plains, someone immigrating to America, or somebody breaking the law? It’s hard to tell. Of course, anymore, virtually zero stories are told about actual immigrants. “Immigrants” are those who come here legally; however, in an effort to skew the truth, the media have taken that word and used it to refer to ILLEGAL immigrants so much that it has almost ceased to be utilized any other way. The impression, therefore, is twofold:

• There is no way to enter the country legally.
• The only (read: correct) way to enter America is to sneak in.

The result is a very confused public. Not a day goes by that I don’t see people online, raving about what Donald Trump is doing to “migrants.” “Asylum seekers.” “Immigrants.”

I know those are not the proper terms, but I don’t believe they do.

And I hear songs and see talking heads and typing radicals telling us we’re a nation of immigrants.

To that, I say:

NO, WE ARE NOT.

We are NOT a “nation of immigrants.” Not when the word “immigrants” means, instead, “illegal immigrants.”

Words mean something, and the Left is poaching the language (illustrated here).

As in so many other cases, sadly, the Right seems to be following suit.

How about this: how about, everyone say what they’re actually talking about? So I don’t have to waste time consulting my Baloney-to-English dictionary, and social media isn’t filled with the rants of fools commenting on something that doesn’t exist, because the media was too weak to describe what does.

We can’t have a healthy debate in this country, if the terms being used in the discussion have no direct relation to the ideas behind them. In that event, everyone is talking about something different. And very few know what they are talking about at all.

At the very least, let us say what we mean. Me, you…this American conservative base. Let us not kowtow to the demands of those who want nothing more than to mislead the ignorant into the hypnotically comforting belief they are informed. That is what is happening: “migrant” is the new “illegal immigrant,” and stupid is the new smart. Let’s put a moratorium on stupid. Let’s build a wall against it. Keep it out of ports of entry. Protect the borders of our nation’s understanding of truth.

And in doing so, may we have a conversation in that light, in that mutual acceptance. Because without the clarity of reality, “nothing” is the new anything.

For more on the culture, please go here and here.

Find all my RedState work here.

And please follow Alex Parker on Twitter.

The post The Left’s War on Language: ‘Illegal’ and What it Means appeared first on RedState.