It is obvious and trivial, that there is a deep relation between language (or "names") and the development of society ("politics"). So there is a link between "correct language" and "truth".
It is a well-known strategy for those, who want fundamental changes in society to start with changing the language, to make unsayable things sayable. I fully agree, that Trump uses this strategy more than any other (leading) politician in democratic countries I know. Usually we find this more in autocratic countries.
The example of gender is very interesting in this matter, because the question is, what defines a gender? Are these biological parameters or is it a matter of psyche - or both? In my case, it is 100% male, but we know of persons, where biology and psyche are not in accordance. So what is the "proper" language, that reflects truth? Nobody can deny, that these people exist and no christian people can deny, that they are also gods creation? So how to deal with these people? Can we say, god made a mistake? And what would follow next? "Correcting" god´s mistake? By what means... ?
I could add many more examples about the relation between controlling a discourse by changing the use of language. Not only in the US and not only by Trump. As said before: this is a well-known strategy everywhere and to recognise these attempts are crucial for a functional democracy as a requirement to make your own qualified opinion.
• I fully agree, that Trump uses this strategy more than any other (leading) politician in democratic countries I know. Usually we find this more in autocratic countries....
The past 20 years have seen an unprecedented assault on a wife range of American culture, and the ones that have used the changes of the language in the sense you write of were in fact the left, the progressives. And hand in hand, it was necessary for the government and culture to become more autocratic in order to enforce such with the US folks.
If that's not apparent to you, perhaps you should take a hard look at how the language was changed over the past years.
Trump is rectifying names because of the (linguistic, cultural and linguistic) distortions committed against the language for several years now. His policy is that the government will revert to traditional meanings exclusively. So, no more discussions of multiple genders when simple male / female sex suffices, as they have for known history.
Unlike Germany, if the news I see lately is true, in the US anyone outside the government is welcome to say whatever they wish.
I only wanted to point to an example, which is a dilemma, when looking deeper. The "gender-correct"-language is an issue found in many countries. Here Trump is not "rectifying", because the matter is much more complex.
But to give one example of many possible about Trump intentionally changing names and reframing concepts: Gulf of America?
Well, your opinion is welcome here and in America. But perhaps not in your homeland. Which government is more authoritarian?
I think, however, that you mix apples and oranges.
"Two sexes, no genders" is government policy, getting the US out of the business of engaging in an entire, "complex" as you note, and ultimately unanswerable-by-government question.
The point of Trump's policy, made clear to the approval of some 60-70% of Americans, the neutral "wait and see" of another >10%, and the rest, a mix of anti-anything-Trump and the True Believers, is that such questions are not
But I urge caution for you in Germany if what is being reported regularly now is true.
I won't repeat a joke I made to a German living outside Germany about a certain amateur artist cum paperhanger, as, if I understand it correctly, if you were to repeat it, you could be arrested, just for that.
So, perhaps you square away Germany before we worry about America's "authoritarian government", where once again you can say pretty much anything you want anytime about anybody (without conveying a threat, which is not free speech).
Regarding the "Gulf of America" comment, I have no idea if Trump is serious, but I doubt it. I suspect he simply used it as a negotiating tactic to help put the Mexican government on notice: this new government is serious about its rights and plans to negotiate from a position of strength, not soft-minded accommodation. Mexico trafficked in millions of illegals illegally crossing your territory to enter the US illegally, even assisted them, and allow enough fentanyl to cross the border to kill 100k/yr for years, but the game has changed. We care so little about your feelings we plan to "appropriate" the second most famous Mexico-named feature on the planet, and by the way, your silent partners the drug cartels are now on the terror watchlists and being surveilled by US DOD drones.
Perhaps not traditional diplomatic repartee but classic Trumpism. Let's see where it goes.
As a watcher of Trump, I notice that lots of people who hate hime or didn't take him seriously tried to have everyone take him literally, while people who take him very seriously seldom take him literally. And with good reason on the part of the latter, while the former never seems to get what is really going on until too late.
Very interesting clip and a part of a "documentation". What was posted by these people is only said it was "posting a racist cartoon online". And we do not see any names or functions about the germans, who are talking. Nothing seen here can be checked. Not even the date, when the footage was recorded. And we do not know anything about the posters.
But there are some very interesting details. It is said, that it was a coordinated effort against "hate speech" across Germany. Let us check it. A house search may only take place on the basis of a judicial warrant - in case of coordinated action in every single case. If actions are coordinated by BKA (equivalent to FBI in USA) and not by local authorities, then it is not about "insulting" other persons. it´s then about about calls to kill someone or groups of people - in other words, we are talking terrorism. The clip is very likely about this day:
From time to time we see (too many) terroristic attacks and political motivated crime by different groups (ultra-right, islamistic, mentally ill persons, that do not fit into any scheme). BTW: far more crimes by ultra-rights against migrants ans jewish people, then islamistic terrorism.
Recently we see a rise of a right-wing party (AfD) to about 20% in Germany, that is in parts anti-constitutional. One of their leaders can be called a fascist and he is also sentenced for using nazi-slogans. Even the right-wings of France do not want to cooperate with them, because they are too radical!
AfD is traditionally anti-european and also (partly) anti-american, but has many connections to Putin and China. Because of their anti-european agenda, they are supported by those, who wish a weak European Union. We see also a rise of similar partys in other european countries (Netherlands, Austria, Hungary, Slowakia, Italy...). In their propaganda, there is a classical Perpetrator-victim reversal. The anti-democrats claim to be victims and of anti-democratic system - and using the freedom, that they only have in a free country for this claim with the objective to change the system....
Their blueprint is.... Trump! Facts are fake and fake are facts? Those criminals of jan 6th were "american patriots"? Next Perpetrator-victim reversal: It was Ukraine´s fault to be attacked by Russia?
Sorry, but USA is at a point where Germany was in 1933. Unsatisfying economic, social problems, external groups are responsible for this (Germany: jewish,. marxists US: migrants, democrats), desire for a "respected country" (MAGA, similar to Germany after WWI), desire for a strong man taking the lead, cutting all illoyal institutions with fireing everybody, who does not follow "the agenda of the president" (in Germany we called this "Gleichschaltung" or "bringing in line", but there is no english aquivalent), controlling the media etc.
Controlling the media does not happen by classical censorship, but by systematicly undermine trust of media, by calling uncomfortable news fake news and witch-haunting and never offer any facts for own claims. But social media spreads all that by using algorithms nobody knows and troll-bots in an industrial way (I am now talking about russian troll factorys.
"Sorry, but USA is at a point where Germany was in 1933. ....
desire for a strong man taking the lead,
cutting all illoyal institutions with fireing everybody, who does not follow "the agenda of the president" (in Germany we called this "Gleichschaltung" or "bringing in line", but there is no english aquivalent), controlling the media etc."
Sorry, but America could completely go to hell and not approach the nadir of Germany in 1933. Not in our nature, I think.
There certainly are English equivalents to "Gleichschaltung"
- Active voice - bringing in line
- Passive " " - being brought in line
or Nazification, to put in the proper context you meant, I believe. In bringing that up I think you confuse Trump for the previous President and his minions, the ones who censored free speech, fabricated rationale for mass surveillance, invaded privacy, and kept US citizens imprisoned for years without arraignment. Hardly the currency of most liberal democracies, but capabilities that your Nazis would sure have liked to control.
I try to listen to other viewpoints, even from people without a dog in the fight, to learn, but, really, insinuating that Trump is Hitler! (be careful! that approaches praise that I think can get you in serious trouble in some places) in so many ways without resorting to the actual "H" word was only mildly entertaining at its most novel and now is certainly routine and trivial after years of it. I get plenty of that from US leftists, although perhaps fortunately for Republicans few are as articulate as you. I admire your mastery of English.
Such baseless insinuations cannot be the point of departure of a serious discussion. I suggest you broaden your news and editorial sources to look beyond the standard MSM line to which you have been brought into so smartly.
You might find it interesting, for there are many great things astir.
I did never compared Trump with Hitler - maybe others do, but I certainly not! There are a lot of differences!
But I compare the recent shifts in american society with the shifts of german society from a weak democracy (started after WW1 and lasted only 14 years) to a dictatorship. Why looking at 1933? Not because of what the Nazis did to the world later and their ideology, but because it was (beside Italy) the first time in history, a western democracy was turned into a dictatorship! This was simply a blueprint for later developments in other countries and we should be aware, that this could happen everywhere.
We saw these shifts in some other european countrys recently. So the main point is: "What makes a democracy resilient?" This was and should be the most important lesson from 1933-45. And you can believe me, that also due to my own family history, I took the lessons very, very seriously.
A resilient democracy needs as a minimum: free media, valid information, jurisdictation controlling executive, rule of law and trust in the constitutional institutions.
Some of these points see an erosion in several countrys, including IMHO USA. You cannot overlook Trump talking about fraud of judges and Vance questioning the right of judges to control the executive. USA must be very careful, what comes next. You wrote, you think "not in our nature". This is a believe and a hope. Maybe the biggest error of the german conservatives in 1933 was, that they thought, they can control the Nazis. Later, after WW2, psychological experiments were created to prove, that is german nature to blindly follow authorities, but the results were shocking:
Of course you are completely correct, that previous administrations had their shortcomings from the point-of-view of a liberal democracy - you mentioned a few of them. And some of them are not in accordance with values of a liberal democracy.
Some other points. I know the terminology usually used in english for "Gleichschaltung". But none of them really is on spot. "Nazifierung" is also used in german, but has a different meaning and "bringing in line" is more commonly used.
Gleichschaltung means, that all all governmental and non-governmental institutions are systematically forced to be under absolute control of the leading power. The way, this was done after 1933 was to replace all leaders in governmental and non-governmental institutions with followers. All institutions, they did not succeed, were banned, discontinued and replaced with newly founded institutions. Leaders were imprisoned as "enemies of the people". "Gleichschaltung" in this systematic take over of control is instrumental in dictatorship of any kind (right-wing, left-wing, religious, ....)
Because it took many civil servants to implement this in Germany - and because after WW2 everybody claimed, that he only followed orders - Germany reacted to make our democracy more resilient. So every civil servant has a job guarantee lifelong and can be only fired, if he is sentenced for committing a crime. And we also have the right to deny following an order, if we think, that this order is against the law. Then an independent judge (!) will decide, what to do.
It is obvious and trivial, that there is a deep relation between language (or "names") and the development of society ("politics"). So there is a link between "correct language" and "truth".
It is a well-known strategy for those, who want fundamental changes in society to start with changing the language, to make unsayable things sayable. I fully agree, that Trump uses this strategy more than any other (leading) politician in democratic countries I know. Usually we find this more in autocratic countries.
The example of gender is very interesting in this matter, because the question is, what defines a gender? Are these biological parameters or is it a matter of psyche - or both? In my case, it is 100% male, but we know of persons, where biology and psyche are not in accordance. So what is the "proper" language, that reflects truth? Nobody can deny, that these people exist and no christian people can deny, that they are also gods creation? So how to deal with these people? Can we say, god made a mistake? And what would follow next? "Correcting" god´s mistake? By what means... ?
I could add many more examples about the relation between controlling a discourse by changing the use of language. Not only in the US and not only by Trump. As said before: this is a well-known strategy everywhere and to recognise these attempts are crucial for a functional democracy as a requirement to make your own qualified opinion.
Hi, Wollfgang!
Thank you for your thoughtful reply.
Unfortunately, as Tzu-lu (子路) said,
"You miss the mark!" in
• I fully agree, that Trump uses this strategy more than any other (leading) politician in democratic countries I know. Usually we find this more in autocratic countries....
The past 20 years have seen an unprecedented assault on a wife range of American culture, and the ones that have used the changes of the language in the sense you write of were in fact the left, the progressives. And hand in hand, it was necessary for the government and culture to become more autocratic in order to enforce such with the US folks.
If that's not apparent to you, perhaps you should take a hard look at how the language was changed over the past years.
Trump is rectifying names because of the (linguistic, cultural and linguistic) distortions committed against the language for several years now. His policy is that the government will revert to traditional meanings exclusively. So, no more discussions of multiple genders when simple male / female sex suffices, as they have for known history.
Unlike Germany, if the news I see lately is true, in the US anyone outside the government is welcome to say whatever they wish.
Cheers, hope all is well with you,
Lance Gatling
Tokyo
Hi Lance,
I only wanted to point to an example, which is a dilemma, when looking deeper. The "gender-correct"-language is an issue found in many countries. Here Trump is not "rectifying", because the matter is much more complex.
But to give one example of many possible about Trump intentionally changing names and reframing concepts: Gulf of America?
Well, your opinion is welcome here and in America. But perhaps not in your homeland. Which government is more authoritarian?
I think, however, that you mix apples and oranges.
"Two sexes, no genders" is government policy, getting the US out of the business of engaging in an entire, "complex" as you note, and ultimately unanswerable-by-government question.
The point of Trump's policy, made clear to the approval of some 60-70% of Americans, the neutral "wait and see" of another >10%, and the rest, a mix of anti-anything-Trump and the True Believers, is that such questions are not
But I urge caution for you in Germany if what is being reported regularly now is true.
https://substack.com/@posner/note/c-94274609?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=2fiw7
I won't repeat a joke I made to a German living outside Germany about a certain amateur artist cum paperhanger, as, if I understand it correctly, if you were to repeat it, you could be arrested, just for that.
So, perhaps you square away Germany before we worry about America's "authoritarian government", where once again you can say pretty much anything you want anytime about anybody (without conveying a threat, which is not free speech).
Regarding the "Gulf of America" comment, I have no idea if Trump is serious, but I doubt it. I suspect he simply used it as a negotiating tactic to help put the Mexican government on notice: this new government is serious about its rights and plans to negotiate from a position of strength, not soft-minded accommodation. Mexico trafficked in millions of illegals illegally crossing your territory to enter the US illegally, even assisted them, and allow enough fentanyl to cross the border to kill 100k/yr for years, but the game has changed. We care so little about your feelings we plan to "appropriate" the second most famous Mexico-named feature on the planet, and by the way, your silent partners the drug cartels are now on the terror watchlists and being surveilled by US DOD drones.
Perhaps not traditional diplomatic repartee but classic Trumpism. Let's see where it goes.
As a watcher of Trump, I notice that lots of people who hate hime or didn't take him seriously tried to have everyone take him literally, while people who take him very seriously seldom take him literally. And with good reason on the part of the latter, while the former never seems to get what is really going on until too late.
Gonna be interesting.
Cheers,
Lance
Very interesting clip and a part of a "documentation". What was posted by these people is only said it was "posting a racist cartoon online". And we do not see any names or functions about the germans, who are talking. Nothing seen here can be checked. Not even the date, when the footage was recorded. And we do not know anything about the posters.
But there are some very interesting details. It is said, that it was a coordinated effort against "hate speech" across Germany. Let us check it. A house search may only take place on the basis of a judicial warrant - in case of coordinated action in every single case. If actions are coordinated by BKA (equivalent to FBI in USA) and not by local authorities, then it is not about "insulting" other persons. it´s then about about calls to kill someone or groups of people - in other words, we are talking terrorism. The clip is very likely about this day:
https://www.bka.de/DE/Presse/Listenseite_Pressemitteilungen/2024/Presse2024/241112_PM_Aktionstag_Hasskriminalit%C3%A4t.html
From time to time we see (too many) terroristic attacks and political motivated crime by different groups (ultra-right, islamistic, mentally ill persons, that do not fit into any scheme). BTW: far more crimes by ultra-rights against migrants ans jewish people, then islamistic terrorism.
Recently we see a rise of a right-wing party (AfD) to about 20% in Germany, that is in parts anti-constitutional. One of their leaders can be called a fascist and he is also sentenced for using nazi-slogans. Even the right-wings of France do not want to cooperate with them, because they are too radical!
https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/politik/ausland/eu-parlament-afd-front-national-le-pen-zusammenarbeit-100.html
AfD is traditionally anti-european and also (partly) anti-american, but has many connections to Putin and China. Because of their anti-european agenda, they are supported by those, who wish a weak European Union. We see also a rise of similar partys in other european countries (Netherlands, Austria, Hungary, Slowakia, Italy...). In their propaganda, there is a classical Perpetrator-victim reversal. The anti-democrats claim to be victims and of anti-democratic system - and using the freedom, that they only have in a free country for this claim with the objective to change the system....
Their blueprint is.... Trump! Facts are fake and fake are facts? Those criminals of jan 6th were "american patriots"? Next Perpetrator-victim reversal: It was Ukraine´s fault to be attacked by Russia?
Sorry, but USA is at a point where Germany was in 1933. Unsatisfying economic, social problems, external groups are responsible for this (Germany: jewish,. marxists US: migrants, democrats), desire for a "respected country" (MAGA, similar to Germany after WWI), desire for a strong man taking the lead, cutting all illoyal institutions with fireing everybody, who does not follow "the agenda of the president" (in Germany we called this "Gleichschaltung" or "bringing in line", but there is no english aquivalent), controlling the media etc.
Controlling the media does not happen by classical censorship, but by systematicly undermine trust of media, by calling uncomfortable news fake news and witch-haunting and never offer any facts for own claims. But social media spreads all that by using algorithms nobody knows and troll-bots in an industrial way (I am now talking about russian troll factorys.
Now the circle is closed to the clips you posted.
Sorry for the long post.
"Sorry, but USA is at a point where Germany was in 1933. ....
desire for a strong man taking the lead,
cutting all illoyal institutions with fireing everybody, who does not follow "the agenda of the president" (in Germany we called this "Gleichschaltung" or "bringing in line", but there is no english aquivalent), controlling the media etc."
Sorry, but America could completely go to hell and not approach the nadir of Germany in 1933. Not in our nature, I think.
There certainly are English equivalents to "Gleichschaltung"
- Active voice - bringing in line
- Passive " " - being brought in line
or Nazification, to put in the proper context you meant, I believe. In bringing that up I think you confuse Trump for the previous President and his minions, the ones who censored free speech, fabricated rationale for mass surveillance, invaded privacy, and kept US citizens imprisoned for years without arraignment. Hardly the currency of most liberal democracies, but capabilities that your Nazis would sure have liked to control.
I try to listen to other viewpoints, even from people without a dog in the fight, to learn, but, really, insinuating that Trump is Hitler! (be careful! that approaches praise that I think can get you in serious trouble in some places) in so many ways without resorting to the actual "H" word was only mildly entertaining at its most novel and now is certainly routine and trivial after years of it. I get plenty of that from US leftists, although perhaps fortunately for Republicans few are as articulate as you. I admire your mastery of English.
Such baseless insinuations cannot be the point of departure of a serious discussion. I suggest you broaden your news and editorial sources to look beyond the standard MSM line to which you have been brought into so smartly.
You might find it interesting, for there are many great things astir.
Good luck in the upcoming elections!
よろしくお願いします
Lance Gatling
I did never compared Trump with Hitler - maybe others do, but I certainly not! There are a lot of differences!
But I compare the recent shifts in american society with the shifts of german society from a weak democracy (started after WW1 and lasted only 14 years) to a dictatorship. Why looking at 1933? Not because of what the Nazis did to the world later and their ideology, but because it was (beside Italy) the first time in history, a western democracy was turned into a dictatorship! This was simply a blueprint for later developments in other countries and we should be aware, that this could happen everywhere.
We saw these shifts in some other european countrys recently. So the main point is: "What makes a democracy resilient?" This was and should be the most important lesson from 1933-45. And you can believe me, that also due to my own family history, I took the lessons very, very seriously.
A resilient democracy needs as a minimum: free media, valid information, jurisdictation controlling executive, rule of law and trust in the constitutional institutions.
Some of these points see an erosion in several countrys, including IMHO USA. You cannot overlook Trump talking about fraud of judges and Vance questioning the right of judges to control the executive. USA must be very careful, what comes next. You wrote, you think "not in our nature". This is a believe and a hope. Maybe the biggest error of the german conservatives in 1933 was, that they thought, they can control the Nazis. Later, after WW2, psychological experiments were created to prove, that is german nature to blindly follow authorities, but the results were shocking:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment
Of course you are completely correct, that previous administrations had their shortcomings from the point-of-view of a liberal democracy - you mentioned a few of them. And some of them are not in accordance with values of a liberal democracy.
Some other points. I know the terminology usually used in english for "Gleichschaltung". But none of them really is on spot. "Nazifierung" is also used in german, but has a different meaning and "bringing in line" is more commonly used.
Gleichschaltung means, that all all governmental and non-governmental institutions are systematically forced to be under absolute control of the leading power. The way, this was done after 1933 was to replace all leaders in governmental and non-governmental institutions with followers. All institutions, they did not succeed, were banned, discontinued and replaced with newly founded institutions. Leaders were imprisoned as "enemies of the people". "Gleichschaltung" in this systematic take over of control is instrumental in dictatorship of any kind (right-wing, left-wing, religious, ....)
Because it took many civil servants to implement this in Germany - and because after WW2 everybody claimed, that he only followed orders - Germany reacted to make our democracy more resilient. So every civil servant has a job guarantee lifelong and can be only fired, if he is sentenced for committing a crime. And we also have the right to deny following an order, if we think, that this order is against the law. Then an independent judge (!) will decide, what to do.