Leftist German Word Police Announce That a Standard Colloquialism for ‘Ethnic German’ Is Racist, Exclusionary and Antidemocratic
In Germany, we suffer under an annual media ritual in which a “jury” consisting of four linguists and a journalist select an “Unwort des Jahres” – an “Unword of the year” – to condemn as politically incorrect. The entire German press then reprint excerpts of the press release issued by these self-appointed language police, and the Gutmenschen can either pat themselves on the back for never having used that evil word in the first place, or strive like hell to keep it from their lips in the future.
As with many deeply retarded conventions, the Unword of the Year became a thing after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in 1991 – as a “linguistically critical” campaign to lecture the masses about all the things they should not say. Its present guardians preach that “linguistic expressions become Unwords because they are used by speakers either thoughtlessly or with intentions worthy of criticism.” They furthermore hope that their “reflection and criticism on the use of Unwords” might “raise awareness about discriminatory, stigmatising, euphemistic, misleading or inhumane language usage.” That might sound all very transparently contentious, politically loaded and ridiculous to you, dear reader, but in Germany the Unwordians are experts and the media treat them like a minor lexicographical priesthood.
Let us go through a few past Unwords of the year, to gain an understanding of what our Unwordians get up to:
- In 2023, the Unword was “Remigration,” a term that came into currency as many who were not of the migrationist school began to wonder how the millions of hostile guests we’d heedlessly welcomed to our continent might be encouraged to go home. The Unwordians claimed that “remigration” had to be unworded because it had become “a right-wing battle cry” and “a euphemistic camouflage word … that obscures actual intentions.” I don’t know what that means; I’m pretty sure that people who talk about remigration just want migrants to remigrate.
- In 2022, the Unword was “Climate terrorists,” a term of art for the Letzte Generation lunatics who would not stop blocking traffic and defacing monuments in a strange campaign to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide. The Unwordians argued that “climate terrorists” had to be unworded because “the term has been used in public discourse to discredit activists and their protests.” Heaven knows we wouldn’t want to cast aspersions upon a bunch of crazy and disruptive social vandals in thrall to a pseudoscientific apocalyptic cult. That would be just terrible.
- In 2021, the Unword was “Pushback,” a borrowing from English that describes stopping irregular migrants at one’s border – in this case, the European border. “Pushback” had to be unworded, they said, because it “glosses over an inhumane procedure” that is intended to deny asylees their human right to claim asylum. Imagine the almost infinite chain of privileges the Unwordians conjure with this argument: Claiming asylum is a human right, so asylees must be allowed to cross borders to exercise their human right to claim asylum, and presumably they must be permitted all the prior actions necessary to bring them to these borders so that they may cross them and claim asylum.
- In 2020, for the first time in history, the Unwordians selected t
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