Rush Limbaugh famously said: “Words mean things.” He was pushing back on the leftists’ purposeful but subtle tweaking of the language which has gained real momentum over the past 20 years. We see it when they use words such as tolerance, diversity, hate, inclusion, and equity. Hint: none of those words, when the left uses them, means what it did 30 years ago nor what most of us mean when we use those words today.

I find that people whose real goals are not defensible engage in this deliberate misuse of language as an insidious tool to hide ideas that would see them shut out of society if the regular citizens truly understood what they were saying. Before getting to the left’s love affair with words such as tolerance, diversity, etc., let’s first focus on my nomination for 2022’s slovo goda (Rus: Word of the Year): the good old Soviet Communist dezinformatsiya. Or as we say ‘disinformation.’

The Free Dictionary defines ‘disinformation’ as:

Deliberately misleading information announced publicly or leaked by a government or especially by an intelligence agency in order to influence public opinion or the government in another nation.

Well, well. Note its true definition is based around governmental propaganda. Sound familiar? Now, to head off accusations that words do change meaning through use, let’s use Wikipedia’s definition:

Disinformation is a subset of propaganda and is false information that is spread deliberately to deceive.

So, it drops the ‘government’ component. But that leads to the key question:

How does disinformation differ from lying? The basic answer is—it doesn’t. Leftists attempt to make the distinction by saying that disinformation, while it is lying, has the added component of ‘seeking to harm’ a person or group. That is a distinction without a difference.

We’ve been conditioned over the past two years to accept that Facebook, Twitter, and the other public platforms have the right to squelch disinformation from being posted, and their excuse is to prevent harm to others. Note well who gets to decide what meets the definition.

Why go to this extra step? Couldn’t Twitter just declare something is a lie or at least deem it false, and counter with proof?

No, because that is not what the new censors mean. What they are doing is squelching opinions that disagree with leftist positions. By doing so, they don’t have to answer any questions or deflect any pushback—just declare it disinformation and move on. If they called it a lie, then people would be able to produce proof of its veracity.

Image: Lamb absorbing Big Brother’s message by Michal Mation. Unsplash license.

Note also how the left is screaming that Elon Musk will damage our democracy by allowing free speech and would squelch opposing views? Ari Melber of MSNBC showed a total tone-deafness this week when he said:

If you own all of Twitter or Facebook or what have you, you don't have to explain yourself. You don't even have to be transparent. You could secretly ban one party's candidate or all of its candidates, all of its nominees. Or you could just secretly turn down the reach of their stuff, and turn up the reach of something else and the rest of us might not even find out until after the election.

What??? You mean, like the truth about Hunter’s laptop? So, Ari, tell me how are those who own all of Facebook or the Washington Post not guilty of your very allegation of sole control?

A funny thing just happened to me. I have a Twitter account for my book, which I lightly use, and never post to, so the incoming traffic volume is low. This past week, my incoming Twitter traffic has exploded and I’m seeing people I haven’t seen in two years suddenly appearing with their posts. Nah, nothing to see here.

Back to the word list at the top. We all know what tolerance is, so tell me why those who constantly call for tolerance are openly intolerant of any position or viewpoints but their own? And their calls for inclusion are laudatory, so why aren’t they inclusive towards a conservative position on COVID masking, the climate, or even Hunter’s laptop, now that it has been verified?

Thus, their need for the label of disinformation. Because ‘lie’ would require an explanation.

It is becoming more apparent that these people are even more unhinged and separated from reality than we thought. And worse, they are evil incarnate when it comes to the security of our society. More reasons, if you need them, to ensure the 2022 midterms are a blowout of epic proportion.

Lewis Dovland is a political observer and passionate about America’s future direction. His focus is on the “Big Picture” end goals of the Progressive Marxist movement and is in the process of developing solutions to our recovery. He can be contacted at: Lewis.Dovland@gmail.com.