A Lesson in 1984 Newspeak

Remember the book/film "1984"?  I have mentioned it in the current context here and here.  Well, The New Criterion has a perceptive list of 'new' Newspeak words that deserve at least a glance. Stay observant lest you succumb to stupefaction by the mindless memes of the left.  Below is a sample:

DIVERSITY: People who look different but think the same way. Diversity applies to race, sex, disability, and sexual orientation. It emphatically does not apply to opinion. Indeed, when it comes to political views, it has taken on more or less the opposite of its Oldspeak meaning.

FAIRNESS: State-enforced equality. It absolutely doesn’t mean reciprocity, proportionate reward, or just deserts. Note from TB: Correct. Justice [i.e. the real thing not the pretend thing which is "social justice"] is not fairness.  

PROFIT: Wickedness. Always a bad thing, but the severity of the term varies according to context. When talking about a supermarket, it simply means greed (q.v.) and exploitation. When discussing trains or hospitals, it means homicidal tendencies, and is thus used as an antonym to safety—which, of course, means more regulation.

POVERTY: Inequality. Poverty is officially defined in the U.K. as having an income less than 60 percent of the mean. A few people get rich and, even if you’re better off in absolute terms, you’re suddenly “poor.” Funnily enough, the recent recession, which saw incomes drop at every level, caused a fall in “poverty” by this definition, but Lefties were more upset than ever. There really is no pleasing some people.

COMMUNITY: The state—or, more precisely, the state’s bureaucracy. The one thing it emphatically doesn’t mean is a voluntary association of individuals. When people talk of “involving the community,” they invariably want more legislation.  Note from TB: Exactly.  Remember all the stories about Obama in his days as a "community organizer"?

Here is Obama teaching communist Saul Alinsky's principles: I think he accidentally left out "Senator," "Bureaucrat," and "President"