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AP Stylebook Institutionalizes Gaslighting!
I have an AP Stylebook but I never open it. The brief on copyright law is useful but I don’t right for anyone that cares about the AP Stylebook so I don’t, either. They have a reputation for chasing woke fads but I was browsing National Review headlines and they have really outdone themselves now.
The Associated Press Stylebook was amended this week to discourage the use of the word “riot” to describe violent protests, instead expanding the definition of “protest” to include violent demonstrations.
“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,” said the AP Stylebook, which sets style guidelines followed by many mainstream media publications.
“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,” it added.
Our institutions are not serving our interests. National Review goes on to document the violence being done to the English language and civil order by an alleged journalistic institution. The rioters are pushing the narrative that when others speak, that is violence, and when others are silent, that is violence, and that when they loot and burn down a jewelry store, that is protected speech. Maybe next edition the AP will catch up.
Published in Politics
In other words the AP Stylebook goes full Orwell.
Truth is not and has never been a left-wing value.
I encourage the rule makers at the AP Stylebook to take a tour of Portland, Kenosha, or Minneapolis and stop to talk to the residents and business owners who have lost everything to these “protesters.” Maybe they need an up-close-and-personal view of how words do, indeed, have meaning.
It never ceases to amaze me that the RINOs at NR (cruise ship icon) bleat about the distinction between “riots” and “unrest” and completely ignore the fact that the chocoration was increased last week.
Jonah wrote a prescient column a few years back about the Chinese concept of “rectification of names.” The idea is that at a certain point in a nation’s history, institutions manage to warp the language to the point that active countermeasures must be taken to return words to commonsense meanings.
Here’s an admittedly subjective history of the way that the left has been warping language in the past few decades.
First there were the claims that conservatives were “fascist.” OK, people have been calling those they hate “fascist” since the early 20th-century. Orwell himself noted this. Nothing new here.
Then “undocumented worker.” OK, you are describing only half of the situation there, in a deceptive way, but you are at least technically correct about that half.
Then we have people who “identify as black.” OK, this might be a sign of psychological trouble, but if the person genuinely believes this, then her use of the term is, again, technically correct.
But with the latest developments, I’m now wondering what possible brake can be applied to private institutions redefining language to suit their political agendas. We seem to be moving closer to the following description from “Politics and the English Language”:
I think its time we protest the media and burn down their businesses. Can we hit up a planned parenthood on the way? As long as its done in an organized and orderly fashion, we’re good.
Who want’s to handle routes we take? Boss Mongo can teach us guerilla tactics. Who wants the take charge of the pyro bit?
See? Organized. Not a Riot. Just a peaceful protest against the media that hates us.
Having worn the helmet, and carrying the long stick about four times, two of which were on the front line when things became violent I have a pretty good idea of what a riot is. Father Flanagan was wrong, there is such a thing as a bad boy, and a bad girl for that matter.
It used to be the goal of style-guides was to clarify language and improve communication. This is the opposite and dangerous.
James used a word I didn’t know. Usually, I tear apart prefixes, roots, and suffixes to figure it out, but this one just left me fantasizing about chocolate.
I’m sure the small merchants that lost their lifelong business’ in the “unrest” would give the AP stylebook an up vote.
Just to clarify, here are a couple of FAQs:
It’s not a “riot” if the beholder sympathizes with the grievance(s) that allegedly sparked the kinetic event in question. If the failure to endorse the grievance would itself comprise a manifestation of systemic racism, then it still cannot be a “riot.”
2. In order not to be a “riot”, does any destruction that happens to take place in the kinetic event have to be related to the grievance, say a government building torched in response to the action(s) of a government employee?
No. All persons who are not manifestly aggrieved by the underlying grievance of the kinetic event, the property of such persons who are not manifestly aggrieved, and even the property of persons who are manifestly aggrieved which property happens to be proximate to the kinetic event may be injured, damaged or destroyed without concomitant justification for the use of the word “riot.”
Hope that clears it up.
If it’s happening in your neighborhood, it’s protesting.
If it’s happening in my neighborhood, it’s rioting.
Just ask Portland mayor Ted Wheeler.
I’m happy to drop “riots” in favor of “domestic terrorism.” Better?
The internet didn’t help me much on that one. But I suspect that your fantasizing about chocolate put you in the ballpark.
Some of it is domestic terrorism. When the mob marches into residential neighborhoods and/or threatens individual homeowners/residents that is domestic terrorism. There are other examples as well.
Sisyphus,
Well isn’t this special. So the AP wishes to ingrain its nauseatingly stupid bias right into the stylebook. What comes to my mind is a stream of curse words and vile appellations to describe the AP and probably explode our COC. However, instead, I will try to hold myself to just one sentence of pure scorn.
The AP should go to h#ll and they should stay there this time. No more redemption for these clowns. They have sealed their fate.
Good Shabbos.
Regards,
Jim
I’m going with chocoration being a portmanteau for chocolate ration. Chocolate is a huge part of my mental health regimen. (Maybe the only thing.) What say you @jameslileks?
This manipulation of language is doubleplusungood.
Dang, now I have to go back to the dictionary. Portmanteau makes me want to get a glass of wine to go with the chocolate.
Increased from 30 grams to 20 grams. Dizzy with success!, as they say at The People’s Cube.
Well done!
Ding ding ding! But what’s the modern equivalent of the chocoration? I think it’s bandwidth.
In California it will soon be a monthly notice telling you how many miles you may drive in your Authorized Power Vehicle.