House Beautiful: "Is the term 'master bedroom' politically incorrect?"

"Master bedroom" is a problematic term for its ties to slavery, implying a concept of dominance and ownership with which a modern-day room need not be imbued.

~ House Beautiful, "Is the Term “Master Bedroom” Politically Incorrect?," July 28, 2020

Michael Tomasky on why mask mandates are compatible with freedom

Freedom emphatically does not include the freedom to get someone else sick. It does not include the freedom to refuse to wear a mask in the grocery store, sneeze on someone in the produce section and give him the virus. That’s not freedom for the person who is sneezed upon. For that person, the first person’s “freedom” means chains — potential illness and even perhaps a death sentence. No society can function on that definition of freedom.

~ Michael Tomasky, "There's a Word For Why We Wear Masks, and Liberals Should Say It," The New York Times, October 17, 2020

Kevin Duffy tweet: This is a property rights issue. Grocery stores, restaurants, your neighbors, grandma... they all make the rules once you step on their property. If they require masks, abide by the rules or leave. But this also applies to businesses and customers who agree not to mask. 

Government lockdowns violate the rights of the latter group and destroy freedom of association in the process. They are tyranny plain and simple, and incompatible with freedom.

Michael Tomasky tweet: You are silly. And muted.

AP Stylebook offers guidance on using the word "riot"

New guidance on AP Stylebook Online: 

Use care in deciding which term best applies: 

A riot is a wild or violent disturbance of the peace involving a group of people. The term riot suggests uncontrolled chaos and pandemonium. (1/5) 

Focusing on rioting and property destruction rather than underlying grievance has been used in the past to stigmatize broad swaths of people protesting against lynching, police brutality or for racial justice, going back to the urban uprisings of the 1960s. (2/5) 

Unrest is a vaguer, milder and less emotional term for a condition of angry discontent and protest verging on revolt. (3/5) 

Protest and demonstration refer to specific actions such as marches, sit-ins, rallies or other actions meant to register dissent. They can be legal or illegal, organized or spontaneous, peaceful or violent, and involve any number of people. (4/5) 

Revolt and uprising both suggest a broader political dimension or civil upheavals, a sustained period of protests or unrest against powerful groups or governing systems. (5/5)

~ AP Stylebook, tweet, October 1, 2020

USA Today tries to downplay the term "riot"

Language choices matter: The term "riot" is loaded, and it's why many use "rebellion," instead, experts said. One suggests reckless violence. The other signifies political resistance to oppression.

~ Alia E. Dastagir, "'Riots,' 'violence,' 'looting': Words matter when talking about race and unrest, experts say," USA Today, May 31, 2020

Friedrich Hayek on the appropriation of the term "liberal" by socialists

[T]here was the deliberate deception practiced by American socialists in their appropriation of the term 'liberalism.'  As Joseph A. Schumpeter rightly put it" 'As a supreme if unintended compliment, the enemies of the system of private enterprise have thought it wise to appropriate its label.'  The same applies increasingly to European political parties of the middle, which either, as in Britain, carry the name liberal or, as in West Germany, claim to be liberal but do not hesitate to form coalitions with openly socialist parties.  It has, as I complained over twenty-five years ago (1960, Postscript), become almost impossible for a Gladstonian liberal to describe himself as a liberal without giving the impression that he believes in socialism.  Nor is this a new development: as long ago as 1911, L.T. Hobhouse published a book under the title Liberalism that would more correctly have been called Socialism, promptly followed by a book entitled The Elements of Social Justice (1922).

~ Friedrich Hayek, The Fatal Conceit, Chapter 6

Jordan Peterson on the dangers of infringing on corporate speech

These corporations who should know far better, let these fifth columns into their organizations.  They think they're not going to pay for that.  They think they're going to stop with demands for the reconstruction of language - not like the demands for reconstruction of language by the way are trivial.  There may be the most important thing you can possibly demand.  "I want to reshape the way you speak.  I want to reshape the way you think."  It's like, "that's ok, as long as it doesn't interfere with the bottom line."  It'll interfere with the bottom line.  You let that fifth column in, it's a warning to corporate people.  You let that fifth column in, man, you're going to regret it. 

Jordan Peterson, "History Describes You!," (9:56-10:30), YouTube, April 9, 2018

George Orwell on the corruption of language

But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.

~ George Orwell, 1984

Emerson on the corruption of language

The corruption of man is followed by the corruption of language. 

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, Chapter 4, Language