The forbidden words

George Orwell, in his classic book 1984, writes characters who speak a dialect of English called "Newspeak."

The "Minitrue" (Ministry of Truth) controls the public perception of what is true, perceptions that are enforced by the "Thinkpol" (Thought Police).  The Thinkpol are responsible for stopping "thoughtcrime," including "facecrime" -- forbidden thoughts as revealed in your facial expression.  Toward that end, they "rectify" historical accounts (to conform to the government's agenda regarding what happened), eliminating anything that is "malquoted" or "misprinted."  You're trained to the point of accepting the government's views based on "bellyfeel" -- how they affect you emotionally, not whether they're true.

Intercourse between a man and a woman -- preferably without any pleasure -- is "goodsex."  Anything else is a "sexcrime."  The preference of the government is that babies are conceived by "artsem" -- artificial insemination.

Someone who breaks any of these rules -- or worse, contradicts what Big Brother wants you to do or say -- is not only killed, every trace of them is erased.  They become an "Unperson."

[Image is in the Public Domain]

Orwell was strikingly prescient.  If you doubt that we're heading down that road, consider the story that appeared in Gizmodo yesterday, that employees at the National Science Foundation and Center for Disease Control have been given a long list by the Trump administration of words they are not allowed to use in official correspondence or publications without review and authorization.

Here's a sampler -- for the complete list, check the link:

• advocacy
• bias
• climate
• cultural heritage
• disability
• discrimination
• diversity
• ethnicity
• evidence-based
• female (no, I'm not making this up)
• gender
• inequality
• LGBTQ
• political
• racial
• science-based
• socioeconomic
• transgender
• women (no, I'm still not making this up)

When I first read this, my initial reaction was, "This can't possibly be true."  The NSF being forbidden from using the words "evidence-based?"  But after some digging about, all I can say is that it appears at the time of this writing to be true.

I'm not sure what to be appalled at most about this.  That we don't want a study identified as "biased," because then we might have to address whose political interests are being served by the bias.  That because of the Trump administration's ongoing war on minorities, we mustn't speak of diversity.  That LGBTQ individuals, whose rights to fair treatment are being threatened with each new executive order, are guilty of "sexcrime;" and we have to pretend transgender people don't even exist.

And "science-based" and "evidence-based?" What the fuck is the NSF supposed to base its policy on, then?  Magic?  The Bible?  Prophecy?

Or just what its "bellyfeel" is?

I've tried not to engage in hyperbole about what this administration is doing, but every new thing I read drives me further toward the conclusion that they have only two motives: consolidating power and seeking revenge against anyone who has stood in their way.  Toward that end, shutting down resistance, eliminating free speech and the free press, rewriting the truth to conform to whatever Trump's cadre says it should be.  Everything contradictory is "oldspeak" that should be "rectified."

The result should be "doubleplusgood," don't you think?  Or maybe we should just stick with "Great Again."

My hope is the fact of this having been made public will give NSF and CDC employees the courage to defy this order.  People have to fight back, tell the 2025 version of the Thinkpol "No way in hell."  We have to spread this story far and wide, because you know the first thing the Trump administration is going to do is claim that this is all "fake news."

"Malquoted" and "misprinted."  Just like the erasure of any reference to the riots and insurrection on January 6.  Just like Trump's insistence that the recent series of horrible airplane crashes had to do with "DEI" and not with the fact that two weeks before the first one, he'd dismissed the head of the FAA and laid off hundreds of air traffic controllers.  Just like the tragic wildfires in California having nothing to do with climate change, but with "failed water policy" by the state's Democratic governor -- and that Trump came in and saved the day by releasing billions of gallons of water from reservoirs that didn't even flow toward Los Angeles, the loss of which will jeopardize agricultural irrigation for months.

Doesn't matter what's actually true.  If it strokes Trump's bloated ego, and allows him to post smug, self-congratulatory, usually misspelled messages on social media, then it's de facto the New Truth.

Of course, forbidden words are not the only hurdle academia is facing in the United States; coupled with all of the funding cuts the NSF, CDC, and NIH are undergoing, it's looking like a war that might not be winnable, at least not in the short term.  If what the administration really wants is to destroy the United States as a leader in scientific and medical research worldwide, they're going about it the right way.  What Trump and Musk and their cronies have done in the last three weeks isn't "rooting out corruption and waste;" it's placing free inquiry into an ideological straitjacket that will set American academia back decades, if it doesn't ruin it completely.

And as far as Orwell goes -- looks like got the details right.  All he missed was the year it happened.

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