Words Democrats should avoid to stop sounding like ‘enforcers of wokeness’

AO-Speak.

A center-left think tank on Friday released a list of 45 words and phrases that Democrats should cut from their vocabulary to stop sounding like “enforcers of wokeness.” 

Third Way, the group behind what’s being called the “blue blacklist,” sorted the all-too-familiar lexicon of the far-left into several categories, including “therapy-speak,” “organizer jargon“ and “explaining away crime,” in a memo aimed at helping Democrats communicate “in authentic ways that welcome rather than drive voters away.” 

“Privilege,” “Othering,” “Triggering,” “Safe space” and “Body shaming,” are among the words Third Way lumped into the “therapy-speak” bucket. 

The memo notes that such language conveys: “I’m more empathetic than you, and you are callous to hurting other’s feelings.” 

The “Seminar Room Language” category lists terms that express, “I’m smarter and more concerned about important issues than you,” according to Third Way. 

The category includes phrases often deployed by “Squad” Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), such as “Subverting norms” and “Systems of oppression.”

“Organizer jargon,” which conveys the talker is “beholden to groups, not individuals,” includes phrases such as “the unhoused,” “food insecurity,” “housing insecurity,” and “person who immigrated.” 

“Birthing person/inseminated person,” “pregnant people,” “chest feeding” and “patriarchy” should also be shunned to avoid “confusing or shaming people who could otherwise be allies,” the think tank urged. 

Democrats are also warned that terms like “justice-involved” and “involuntary confinement” make it seem as if “the criminal is the victim” and “the victim is an afterthought.”

“A lot of this stuff comes straight out of the faculty lounge at universities, I mean, no one talks about the Overton Window at a football game,” Third Way co-founder Matt Bennett said in an interview with CNN. 

“Does anyone in your family around the table use words like this? Do you hear this when you talk to people that you went to high school with or folks you talk to at the grocery store?” Bennett continued.  

“People just don’t talk this way,” he argued. “And when Democrats do, they’re putting a barrier between themselves and voters in ways that are deeply alienating and really off-putting.

“And we thought it was time for somebody to tell them that.” 

White House Deputy Secretary Abigail Jackson was among several on social media who mocked the list – and Democrats.  

“lol so should they just not talk at all? because this is pretty much their entire vocabulary,” Jackson quipped. 

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr joked: “This triggering microaggression will only further subvert norms.” 

“My advice?” Carr continued. “Hold the space. Dialogue more. Don’t participate in this system of oppression!!” 

“Stop calling them language police,” Stanford University professor Keith Humphreys said in a sardonic defense of Third Way, “They are people who police language.”