In a world of social ladder climbing driven by misinformation, personal bias, political rhetoric, and public outrage over public policy mandates, clear communication styles are key to resolving conflicts that move ideas toward positive outcomes. As a result, understanding words, cliché, and phraseology matters. Multicultural societies face a distinct period in communication history as global 21st century civilization existentially lives through the eyes of narrative and conjecture spawned by a proposition that an individual’s words are more important than character, moral fiber, and lived experience.
While it may serve people well to guard word usage, there are instances in which judging other’s verbiage reference to actions, events or circumstances is nothing more than the Biblical expression originated in Matthew 23:24 [words that] “Strain at a gnat and swallow a camel”. This liturgical expression teaches us that when we resist, criticize, or bemoan something minor or inconsequential, while ignoring or overlooking something much more serious or important, we contribute to the demise of a Constitutional democracy. And the Civilized World experiences novel disruptive, venomous goals, and agendas attacking the core of every lawful sector of society.
In 2017, it became apparent to the public that a new way of exacting attacks on individuals, groups, family units, houses of worship, lawful ideology, and private business sectors became the target of revenge in the form of an orchestrated assault on Democratic societies called “cancel culture.” This is one example of a unique, destructive term given a special place in modern vernacular resulting in an enormous, broad sweeping negative influence on population masses-at-large. The vile goal to exercise control over societies using this term developed a narrative in the Court of Public Opinion that has become the most destructive, propagandized force to disrupt peace through unlawful assembly across the globe. Once cancel culture took hold, there were few, if any, communities safe from its wrath. What used to be civil discourse has become a pathway that is odious, if not impossible, for anyone to navigate safely.
Entire populations have become wary of being cancelled causing fearful discourse that changes the meaning of words and phrases. In addition, incorrect word emphasis and tone inflection causes an onslaught of angry, violent, inciting rhetoric, threats, doxing, and physical assaults. Add to this cell phone photography with rapid dispatch on social media, and an inferno of civil disobedience and destruction ensues. Cancel culture is responsible for one of the greatest shifts in personal, social, and political misunderstanding of words, terms, ethics, morals, lawful assembly, and civil discourse.
The success of the cancel culture movement begs the question how did the world go so mad in just a few years? When did the call for attack on those who offer differing views, opinions, and ideas become the standard for personal, social, and corporate behavior? Why have entire communities and ethnic groups become so vehemently and overtly intent on eliminating anyone who dares to speak or utter a word against personal and politically driven narratives? When did feelings and interpretation become more important than meaning as it relates to communication?
There is simply too much going on in the world today for anyone to capably address the myriad of possibilities for something said several decades ago, much less be able to make sense of something said a few days, weeks, months, or years ago. Therefore, understanding a word salad of terms really matters in society today and understanding the role polemics may play in manipulating ways of thinking, speaking, and acting becomes paramount to freedom. People are creatures of habit. In other words, a person’s thoughts, words, and actions are based on what is most familiar when interacting with associates. People may never take the time to think about what is being said or done, because family, friends, and acquaintances are usually those with whom they relate. Familiar relationships are the core audience of the individual that can influence communications, behaviors, and character, with unwavering loyalty, although loyalty to others has begun to disappear, this is a subject for another time. In other words, those closest to you are often those who align with you on a personal and social level and so you and your closest compadres are likely to err on the side of agreement, even when something you say, or do, seems questionable in terms of acceptable community norms.
So, what do word salad terms have to do with constructive interaction, communication, and preserving truth driven narratives? The question is at the center of an individual’s ability to navigate and manage the intense opposition while faced with devious methods to manipulate words to force personal and political agendas and control public perception of unpopular or historically damaging social change. Infringing on the polemics of change is a rise in the public’s ability to identify social dementia.
Social dementia refers to circumstances or situations that are used to damage an individual’s ability to view social interactions based on societal norms and rules for interaction. This condition is usually created by an action, event, or series of personal or group interactions when a seed idea is planted and grows into civil unrest, loss of respect for social institutions, and lack of respect for civil and social communications. There is a two-tiered way social dementia can impact societies.
For example, early in the global SARS-COV-2 pandemic, the phenomenon called Wokism was born working as a banner to drive cancel culture. The plan for Wokism was to set in motion the transmission of societal elite narratives that painted individuals, groups, and organizations as guilty of transgressions against, gender, minorities, sex, and ethnic groups. The narratives created and supported by special interest groups, corporations, government, and legacy media, were intended to be used as a way of targeting any person or group that in some way posed a threat to the ruling elite and labeled an enemy of perceived truth. Suddenly, politicians, standup comedians, local public officials, citizenry, or anyone else was not safe from the venom of Wokism and its attack against historical social norms. As a result, thousands of individuals, groups, families, businesses, and public figures were threatened with cancel culture unless they relented and choose the Woke correct side of the argument. Wokism today is one of the most egregious methods used to censor freethinking in societies as evidenced by social media; another topic for another day. Wokism forces other questions. How has social dementia propagated? What changed during the advent of Wokism, that upended laws, rules, standards, social norms, and perceptions?
From a personal point of view, those who have been targeted racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, or other negative adjectives, are not equally at risk of being canceled by the woke crowd. Consider how vicious the truth is if you believe the truth shall set you free. This statement has been attributed to many famous people over the years and goes back in history to the times of the Bible where it was framed by none other than Jesus Christ, himself. There is something about speaking and living truth that permeates all boundaries of personal and social interaction. Truth needs no defense, and the only thing that stands against truth is falsehoods, lies, and propagandized narratives that represent evil and nefarious purposes.
It is interesting to mention truth in relation to Wokism while it spreads tentacles into every aspect of society, because it is also being referred to as the New Religion of the West by some. Judeo-Christian values, that have been at the cornerstone of civilization throughout history has typically represented US values until very recently. Those values are slowly evolving into propagandized theories and philosophies that are anti-God, anti-family, and anti-society. This erosion of beliefs, values, norms, and religiosity will result in catastrophic consequences for democratic nations around the world. And the tenets of Wokism are not limited to a few countries. The construct has spread across the globe like a novel virus that leaves no one safe from the danger and risk of infection. Yes, there is hope. There are calls for the removal of Wokism from cultures worldwide to create a groundswell of support to incinerate the Wokism model; and not only from high profile individuals and groups, but also from the general populace and entities who are doing what they can to restore a sense of historical normalcy to stop the effects on society brought on by this wave of social dementia.
I often hear, “What can I do to help?”. You can help by understanding that social dementia affects society on a global and personal level. However, mitigating the personal impact of social dementia and propaganda requires a catalyst of some kind to create meaningful action that promotes change. For example, recently the Canadian Trucker protest demonstrated a secret sauce to facilitate change. Watch and act by example, but be sure to educate yourself on laws that govern civil protests, and as always follow the law.
Know that incitement and threats are considered unlawful and understand the legal definition of free speech before you speak or post to social media. Consider when George Floyd tragically lost his life during what was supposed to be a routine arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The details of his death have been played over and over in detail yet, the results of his death may or may not have been expected. As a result, immediately after the death of George Floyd, riots, chaos, civil unrest, death, destruction, incivility, hate, and crime exploded across the US and around the world. Buildings, and city blocks were destroyed, thousands of people were injured. Statues, monuments, and historical sites were damaged or destroyed. Law enforcement was the specific target of violence and death at the hands of mobs and crowds of people which can only be described as directed attacks intended to create tragic results that far exceeded any of the socially proscribed rules of engagement outside of civil war. It appeared that collectively and all at once, civilized society in the US went crazy at the same time, and the battle cry was, defund the Police, death to America, no justice; no peace, just to name a few.
Opposition groups began identifying what was happening as justified retribution or reparations for all the sins of America, but was it really? Anyone who offered a different opinion, other than the predominant narrative, was immediately labeled a racist, a hater of specially designated groups or minorities, or anti-government. All the while, none of the individuals leading the charge were willing to engage in social discourse based on the understanding and meaning of the terms or the historical relevance surrounding any of the social institutions that were being destroyed. It appears that the anti-society movement itself was, and continues to this day, to be based on philosophical ideology that circles around 18th and 19th century Marxism, Socialism, and Communism. All of the ‘new thinkers’ have decided to retry old theories to re-organize civilization in the way they think it should be maintained. There is no doubt that the tenets of Marxism, Socialism and Communism have been proven to be failures, to say the least, and history points to this fact. Yet, what are facts to those who oppose truth?
Trying to get people with insufficient knowledge of historical context to understand a word salad of terms in modern society is not a winning formula for constructive dialogue. And, because there is little understanding of history, the defining terminology of history, or the related events of history, social dementia easily plagues thought processes and abilities to reason in a logical way. Therefore, to those who seek chaos, division, tribalism, and the like, nothing makes sense other than the tyrannical and divisive edicts and minds indoctrinated over the past few decades by higher education as well as social pressures to conform to certain ideological mindsets. In other words, to those who hate freedom, liberty, and personal rights, there is nothing sacred or decent outside of the chaos and division, only pride in the fact they are causing trouble for the country. In this scenario, it is less likely that a rational and shared conversation with people of this mindset will occur.
The Continental Divide published in 1990 by Lipset warns the past has become the continental fissure stoked by players looking to divide and enhance chaos for personal, social, and political ladder climbing purposes. The events taking place has sparked one of the most alarming displays of social dementia in American history. Suddenly, people were not doing what they were doing because of George Floyd. They were acting for numerous reasons, most of which had nothing to do with the death of George Floyd and everything to do with dividing the Continent. The Machiavellian term “never waste the opportunity offered by a good crisis” was emphasized by President Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, during the Wall Street meltdown and used to influence actions in the Floyd context. The same is used today to plot political action timelines behind closed doors in Washington, D.C. In fact, the term has become the political modus operandi for political opposition parties as evidenced by the Durham Investigation and the coinciding Russia attack in Ukraine, China threat in Taiwan, and nuclear proliferation in Iran and North Korea. These are examples of the subtle, and not so subtle, ways antagonists subvert principles of socially acceptable behavior for political gain and global power.
You see, during the past two political cycles, there has been no lack of conflicting positions regarding the legitimacy of politicians, people, groups, organizations, and institutions that stand in direct opposition to each other. The problem goes much deeper than Wokism, cancel culture, and understanding terminology and intent of word usage. What forms the foundation for the Change America and replace democracy mantra is big corporations, politicians, lawyers, mainstream media, under cover activists, government, and wealthy donors who foster anti-nation building propagandized rhetoric to sow chaos and a plague of crime and violence on innocents. This also fuels political and social action groups whose cause is manipulated and often torched as big money uses them for power grabs. The ideological position of organizations is to create more division, chaos and a sense of tribalism designed to cause racial strife around the country at the behest of the funding agent.
In other words, big money is behind the great divide. On one side of the divide are staunch advocates for doing away with anything that supports the US Constitution, Freedom of Speech, personal rights, liberties, freedoms, and global democratic societies. The progressive left openly calls for anarchy with a primary goal to change social norms through Socialist, political controversies. On the other side of the divide are those who support the very principles and creeds written in the US Constitution and foundations of democratic societies. The Declaration of Independence provides individuals inalienable rights focused on life, liberty, and the ability to live among the citizenry based on freedom, opportunity, and self-determination that cannot be restrained or repealed by human laws. With this in mind, it is time to begin calling out those who are in opposition to the truth and all that it represents. Because, when the truth is silenced based on manipulation and propagandization of terminology, understanding ceases to be a vibrant, resilient pillar of innovation and societal growth.
The bottom-line is public discourse and subsequent public communications should never be in the control of power-hungry individuals and groups riding the tide of chaos, confusion, fear, and warmongering. Discussions should be based on mutual understanding of terms and what the words represent in a free, democratic society. Anything less than this is nothing more than destruction of the very thing that a constitutional, democratic society stands or falls upon. If our society falls to propagandized, manipulated opinion, and rhetoric of the moment, our Nation is destined to fall permanently.
The Washington Pundit | Speak Truth To Power
Registered Nurse, Peer reviewer, , Healthcare consultant, Freelance Writer, Educator, SC Nurse Honor Guard.
