Political correctness destroys the accuracy of language
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| President Trump (Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images); George Conway (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) |
This is a subject that could fill a 700-page book, but here I want to examine just a few recent examples that inspired me to write this post.
In summary, the recent coronavirus crisis has a lot of Leftists prickly about the word "Chinese" and use "Asian" instead.
This is akin to the Leftists' aversion to the word "Oriental," in my opinion, which many still (incorrectly) assume is ethnically derogatory. President Trump recently called someone "moonface," which many Leftists (incorrectly) assumed to be an ethnic slur.
On May 4, Trump called George Conway "moonface." He's the husband of Trump's White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, and although he's "conservative," he's a big Never-Trumper.
Trump and Conway's bitter public feud goes back a long time. That culminated in the now-infamous "Moonface" tweet from the President, which immediately set off a firestorm of outraged screams of "racist!" from the Left.
That search does not bring up "ethnic slur," "Asian," or "Chinese." In fact, the overwhelming majority of the Google returns are about "moon face" as a medical condition.
Merriam-Webster gives this definition of "moon face":
Merriam-Webster defines "moonfaced":
When was the last time you heard anybody use "moon face" to besmirch Asians? If it's a "common ethnic slur," as Victory Brownworth claims, then surely you've heard it. Surely it would come up as such in a Google search. Right? Ironically, Brownworth's Twitter profile says she is an "Award-winning investigative journo." Yet she failed to investigate the term "moonface." Maybe she doth protest too much: Do her comrades in the Leftist echo chamber in which she dwells use the term "moonface" to describe Asians? Why else would she think that very rarely used "slur" is "common?"
Some other leftists are mistakenly claiming that Kellyanne Conway is "half Filipino." She's not. Her mother Diane Fitzpatrick is of Italian descent and her father John Fitzpatrick is of Irish ancestry, according to her bio.
George Conway is half-Filipino on his mother's side. However, Trump was probably not remarking on his ethnicity but, rather, on his physical appearance. Conway is, after all, a pudgy, dumpy moonfaced little man. His appearance is not obviously Filipino. George Conway's fat doughy face actually resembles someone who might have Cushing's syndrome. He appears to have, well, a moon face.
To all of the pearl-clutching, Trump-hating Leftists out there who are horrified by the term "moon face," check yourselves and your comrades for your years-long, incessant, and deliberately cruel deriding the President for his physical appearance: weight, "orange" skin, hair, etc.
This brings us back to how Leftists are misusing (and abusing) the word "Asian."
The Philippines is considered to be part of Asia, and George Conway is half-Filipino – therefore, he's half-Asian.
However, Brownworth and others are saying that "Moonface is a common ethnic slur for Asians." We've already shown that this is not true, but the bigger point here is – which Asians do they mean?
There are many countries and ethnicities on that vast, multicultural continent, as seen in the small sampling of typical Asian faces (left).
Asia is much more than just China. It stretches from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to Japan in the east, from Russia's Siberia in the north to India, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea in the south.
The 2020 population of Asia is approximately 4.6 billion. The 2020 population of China alone is approximately 1.4 billion. So, about 70% of Asia is not "Chinese," and China has at least 56 ethnic groups within its borders.
My tweeted response (with a map of Asia) to Brownworth ask her just that:
There's this madness from The Washington Post: "Trump has no qualms about calling coronavirus the ‘Chinese Virus.’ That’s a dangerous attitude, experts say." This opinion piece, written by Allyson Chiu, essentially preaches that referring to something by its point of origin is evil, xenophobic, and promotes violence.
I searched and searched but could not find anything by Ms. Chiu in which she admonished us to stop saying "African swine flu" or "West Nile virus." I wonder why that is. After all, she must have been horrified by the waves of violent mobs attacking Africans because of those names. Weren't you?
"Jenn" is an "Asian American race & feminist blogger." Given that, you might think she would know that "Asian" is not a race. She should know that while much of the world blames the government of China for COVID-19, NOBODY blames the Chinese people.... or India, Pakistan, Lebanon, Vietnam, or any other Asian country. But, sadly, she doesn't and this is typical dumb-think by Leftists:
Diseases, of course, are not the only things that have been named for the place that they were first known.
The actual name of "murder hornets" is "Asian giant hornets." Why? Because they originated in Asia. Many liberals say that calling coronavirus (COVID-19) the "Chinese Virus" is racist. Some even think that saying it's from China is racist.
So why, then, isn't the term "Asian giant hornets" racist?
Give it time. Some leftie will propose calling them HOVID-19 (Hornets Vicious Dangerous 2019).
If missiles hit civilians in a war zone, would it be racist to say that "Russian missiles" or "American missiles" were responsible? Is it racist to say "Washington apples," "Danish pastry," or "Italian opera?"
This made me hungry. I'm going to my favorite Oriental restaurant tonight to get some Chinese food. I just love Asian cuisine.
Related Items:
In summary, the recent coronavirus crisis has a lot of Leftists prickly about the word "Chinese" and use "Asian" instead.
This is akin to the Leftists' aversion to the word "Oriental," in my opinion, which many still (incorrectly) assume is ethnically derogatory. President Trump recently called someone "moonface," which many Leftists (incorrectly) assumed to be an ethnic slur.
On May 4, Trump called George Conway "moonface." He's the husband of Trump's White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, and although he's "conservative," he's a big Never-Trumper.
Trump and Conway's bitter public feud goes back a long time. That culminated in the now-infamous "Moonface" tweet from the President, which immediately set off a firestorm of outraged screams of "racist!" from the Left.
Kurt Schlichter, Senior Columnist at Townhall.com, tweeted this gem the next day in response:....because they don’t know how to win, and their so-called Lincoln Project is a disgrace to Honest Abe. I don’t know what Kellyanne did to her deranged loser of a husband, Moonface, but it must have been really bad. John Weaver lost big for Kasich (to me). Crazed Rick Wilson....— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2020
What Schlichter was saying, of course, was that Leftists would pounce on Trump's use of "Moonface" as "racist." And, predictably, they did."Okay everyone, today we need to pretend that 'moonface' is a racial slur."— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) May 5, 2020
Was Trump's "Moonface" tweet in poor taste? Yes. But racist? Absolutely not, and the tweet by Victoria Brownworth (@VABVOX) is based on a falsehood: "Moonface" (or "moon face") is not a "common ethnic slur" for any group, let alone "Asians." Search Google for "moon face -trump -conway -orangeface" (that filters out the recent noise about Trump's tweet)."Moonface" is a common ethnic slur for Asians, which Trump has now added to his racist repertoire with this tweet. Also, Kellyanne Conway is his most trusted and loyal advisor and has four half-Asian kids. Trump values no one and nothing. https://t.co/zX0uER21mS— Victoria Brownworth (@VABVOX) May 5, 2020
That search does not bring up "ethnic slur," "Asian," or "Chinese." In fact, the overwhelming majority of the Google returns are about "moon face" as a medical condition.
Merriam-Webster gives this definition of "moon face":
moon face nounThe condition of "moon face" can also be a side effect of the drug Prednisone.
variants: or moon facies
Medical Definition of moon face: the full rounded facies characteristic especially of Cushing's syndrome and typically associated with deposition of fat
Merriam-Webster defines "moonfaced":
Definition of moonfaced: having a round face
Examples of moonfaced in a Sentence Recent Examples on the Web// His moonfaced son, drunk and sweaty, smelling like grass.— Emma Cline, The New Yorker, "Son of Friedman," 24 June 2019
First Known Use of moonfacedDo either of those definitions sound like "a common ethnic slur for Asians?" Not to me.
1619, in the meaning defined above
When was the last time you heard anybody use "moon face" to besmirch Asians? If it's a "common ethnic slur," as Victory Brownworth claims, then surely you've heard it. Surely it would come up as such in a Google search. Right? Ironically, Brownworth's Twitter profile says she is an "Award-winning investigative journo." Yet she failed to investigate the term "moonface." Maybe she doth protest too much: Do her comrades in the Leftist echo chamber in which she dwells use the term "moonface" to describe Asians? Why else would she think that very rarely used "slur" is "common?"
George Conway is half-Filipino on his mother's side. However, Trump was probably not remarking on his ethnicity but, rather, on his physical appearance. Conway is, after all, a pudgy, dumpy moonfaced little man. His appearance is not obviously Filipino. George Conway's fat doughy face actually resembles someone who might have Cushing's syndrome. He appears to have, well, a moon face.
To all of the pearl-clutching, Trump-hating Leftists out there who are horrified by the term "moon face," check yourselves and your comrades for your years-long, incessant, and deliberately cruel deriding the President for his physical appearance: weight, "orange" skin, hair, etc.This brings us back to how Leftists are misusing (and abusing) the word "Asian."
The Philippines is considered to be part of Asia, and George Conway is half-Filipino – therefore, he's half-Asian.
However, Brownworth and others are saying that "Moonface is a common ethnic slur for Asians." We've already shown that this is not true, but the bigger point here is – which Asians do they mean?
There are many countries and ethnicities on that vast, multicultural continent, as seen in the small sampling of typical Asian faces (left).
Asia is much more than just China. It stretches from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to Japan in the east, from Russia's Siberia in the north to India, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea in the south.
The 2020 population of Asia is approximately 4.6 billion. The 2020 population of China alone is approximately 1.4 billion. So, about 70% of Asia is not "Chinese," and China has at least 56 ethnic groups within its borders.
My tweeted response (with a map of Asia) to Brownworth ask her just that:
To say that "moonface is a common slur against Asians" is absurd. Not only is that untrue, but it's also about as accurate as saying that everyone in North America is white. Not everyone in Asia looks the same. Not every Filipino looks like George Conway. There is, fact, a great variety of facial types in Asia. In their attempt to be politically correct, Leftists like Brownworth are, ironically, racist by means of stereotyping and homogenizing several billion humans.Which "Asians" are you talking about, Vicky? Turks? Saudis? Indians? Pakistanis? Siberian Russians? Iranians? Afghanis? Iraqis? Turkmen? Yemenis? Sri Lankans? Jordanians? Lebanese? Indonesians? pic.twitter.com/orTa1WV6M3— ChiHouston News Bench™ (@ChiNewsBench) May 5, 2020
There's this madness from The Washington Post: "Trump has no qualms about calling coronavirus the ‘Chinese Virus.’ That’s a dangerous attitude, experts say." This opinion piece, written by Allyson Chiu, essentially preaches that referring to something by its point of origin is evil, xenophobic, and promotes violence.
I searched and searched but could not find anything by Ms. Chiu in which she admonished us to stop saying "African swine flu" or "West Nile virus." I wonder why that is. After all, she must have been horrified by the waves of violent mobs attacking Africans because of those names. Weren't you?
"Jenn" is an "Asian American race & feminist blogger." Given that, you might think she would know that "Asian" is not a race. She should know that while much of the world blames the government of China for COVID-19, NOBODY blames the Chinese people.... or India, Pakistan, Lebanon, Vietnam, or any other Asian country. But, sadly, she doesn't and this is typical dumb-think by Leftists:
And of course, the media love to encourage this dumb-think:A6: Media imagery that inappropriately connects Asians with novel coronavirus results in idea that each of us – by virtue of our race – are embodiments of this virus. We – by virtue of our race – should be feared, blamed, shunned, punished. Sometimes violently. #StopCOVID19Hate— Reappropriate (@reappropriate) May 6, 2020
We've had the Left lecturing us that calling COVID-19 "Chinese Virus" is racist. It's gotten to the point where some on the Left don't even like to acknowledge that it originated in China. There's a logic of sorts to not naming future diseases after their place of origination, and give them bland names such as COVID-19 (Corona Virus Disease 2019). But it is also logical to wonder where that blandly named disease came from because knowing that can give important clues as to its epidemiology.Why all Asians? South Korea did nothing bad for Coronavirus pandemic. https://t.co/nhoaLF3XrB— Nathan H. Park (@l12ardk1n9) April 29, 2020
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| The deadly HOVID-19 |
The actual name of "murder hornets" is "Asian giant hornets." Why? Because they originated in Asia. Many liberals say that calling coronavirus (COVID-19) the "Chinese Virus" is racist. Some even think that saying it's from China is racist.
So why, then, isn't the term "Asian giant hornets" racist?
Give it time. Some leftie will propose calling them HOVID-19 (Hornets Vicious Dangerous 2019).
If missiles hit civilians in a war zone, would it be racist to say that "Russian missiles" or "American missiles" were responsible? Is it racist to say "Washington apples," "Danish pastry," or "Italian opera?"
This made me hungry. I'm going to my favorite Oriental restaurant tonight to get some Chinese food. I just love Asian cuisine.
Related Items:
- How The Left’s War On Words Manipulates Your Mind: The Federalist; https://thefederalist.com/2018/05/01/lefts-war-words-manipulates-mind Published Online May 1, 2018
- How the Left destroys itself and other commentary: New York Post; https://nypost.com/2019/01/24/how-the-left-destroys-itself-and-other-commentary Published Online January 24, 2019
- Analysis of differences between Western and East-Asian faces based on facial region segmentation and PCA for facial expression recognition: AIP Conference Proceedings 1807, 020025 (2017); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4974807 Published Online: 26 January 2017
- World of Facial Averages: Middle Eastern, Central Asian and South Asia: The Postnational Monitor, https://pmsol3.wordpress.com/2011/04/07/world-of-facial-averages-middle-eastern-and-central-asian/ Published Online: April 7, 2011
- World of Facial Averages: East-Southeast Asia & Pacific Islander: The Postnational Monitor, https://pmsol3.wordpress.com/2009/10/10/world-of-facial-averages-east-southeast-asia-pacific-islander/ Published Online: October 10, 2009
- The “Moon Face” of Cushing Syndrome, by Leonard J. Hoenig, MD: JAMANetwork, https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/article-abstract/2673814 Published Online: March 2018
- Moon-Face, a short story by Jack London: found online May 6, 2020 at https://americanliterature.com/author/jack-london/short-story/moon-face
While attending the dedication of the "Indian Land Dancing" mural at Foster and Lake Shore Drive on August 22, I was reminded of a ridiculous argument. That ongoing argument is over the correct way to refer to indigenous peoples of North and South America, the folks who were here thousands of years before any European. The argument is full of hypocrisy, ignorance and politically correct silliness. It wasn't 
