The Gadfly is not an alarmist by any means, but some of the shit that this administration is doing in the background right now, while everyone is distracted and wringing their hands about the Mueller investigation outcome, is simply stunning, and yes, fucking alarming.
The Trump administration is prohibiting officials at the nation’s top public health agency from using a list of seven words or phrases — including “fetus” and “transgender” — in any official documents being prepared for next year’s budget.
Policy analysts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were told of the list of forbidden words at a meeting Thursday with senior CDC officials who oversee the budget, according to an analyst who took part in the 90-minute briefing. The forbidden words are “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”
In some instances, the analysts were given alternative phrases. Instead of “science-based” or “evidence-based,” the suggested phrase is “CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes,” the person said. In other cases, no replacement words were immediately offered.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/cdc-gets-list-of-forbidden-words-fetus-transgender-diversity/2017/12/15/f503837a-e1cf-11e7-89e8-edec16379010_story.html?utm_term=.893e86793c9f
If they can utilize the power of the state to ban specific words, then who or what is to stop them from taking it to the next logical step - the banning and sharing of ideas and opinions and the right to pursue certain unalienable rights?
This is the kind of totalitarian edict that The Gadfly would expect to hear that Vladimir Putin and his Kremlin political associates had issued and who in fact do so all the time.
Let's do a cursory review of this list of seven dirty words that the CDC has been informed that they are forbidden from using in their policy papers shall we?
Let's take a look at the most obvious one first -
Fetus. It's no secret that Drumpf has thrown his political lot in with the evangelicals and abortion is the hot potato issue that gets their loins all hot and bothered. It's the proverbial bone thrown to a radical group who are determined to control the reproductive rights of every woman in this country and which is really just a gateway issue they use as cover to see their Christian reconstruction plans for ruling the nation are advanced.
Vulnerable. When The Gadfly thinks of the word "vulnerable" in the context of a political, socioeconomic discussion, he thinks of the elderly, the poor, the physically disabled, immigrants, people with no access to affordable health or mental health care, the homeless, etc. Conservatives don't like the word because it appeals to good people's hearts and souls too easily and god forbid that we have public servants who demonstrate any empathy toward their suffering fellow citizens as they discharge their government duties.
Entitlement. Apparently, any government program that enhances the quality of life of an American while shaving a few cents on the dollar off of some billionaire's tax cut is an "entitlement" and once again it's a word that conservatives do not like to bandy about except in the context of it being a vehicle for some undeserving Americans (usually the darker-skinned ones) to take something that they have no right to.
Transgender and diversity. Bigotry and racism, pure and simple. Aside from the abortion issue, if there's one thing that modern, alt-right conservatives hate more, it's people of different skin colors, different cultures, languages and lifestyles, different religions, and open-minded ideas about how to govern a nation of such diverse citizens.
And lastly.
Evidence-based and science-based. The Centers for Disease Control are scientists. It's what they do. They study the science and collect the best available evidence about a wide range of public health issues with the goal of protecting the American populace from dangerous health threats that if not addressed and dealt with could very well compromise our national security. The Gadfly would think that any American who considers themselves sane and reasonable would want scientists who have this thankless job to be all about evidence-based and science-based analysis when they study these critical national health issues and issue national policies to deal with them.
And just curious -- what is the penalty should a scientist consciously make the decision to speak out publicly using any of these banned words? Demotion? Loss of job. Economic sanctions? Legal persecution up to and including arrest and imprisonment?
Drumpf and the conservative right are treading dangerously close to authoritarianism with shit like this dear readers. And it needs to be clarified right here and now that there is a clear line to be crossed, and by their own evidence-based actions and words, the right seems to be quite willing to do so at some future point should they ever gain unfettered power. And it goes without saying that should that moment come to pass, then perhaps it's time to dust off these hallowed words and put them to good use:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/
Just saying.
----TFG
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