In this episode of The Candice Malcolm Show, host Candice talks with journalist Harley Sims about the importance of writing and reporting about civil liberties in Canada, and why it's so important to fight for our constitutional rights and liberties.
00:22:01.160And the word man originally meant human and mankind refers to all humankind.
00:22:06.140And it becomes an academic exercise, literally.
00:22:09.300When we start getting into all the different meanings of words and where they come from.
00:22:12.800And that's why it's neat to pick up a book of etymology and the origins of phrases.
00:22:18.220Because it's just, you know, it's just a jaunt into, into the past.
00:22:22.500These are things we have to, we have to come to learn.
00:22:26.680Not things that we somehow know by speaking a language.
00:22:29.660But to get back to your point about it being, you know, insidious.
00:22:34.880It's, cancelling speech and making certain ideas inappropriate for public discourse has always been the goal of the opponents of free speech.
00:22:49.400And that's not to deny that hurtful terms don't exist.
00:23:00.100But when people come along and they say, no, no, no, it's not just about whole categories of thought or arguments that are wrong.
00:23:09.280They try to tell you the very elements of language are wrong.
00:23:16.180They are trying to take away the very fibers of the carpet you're standing on.
00:23:21.160And think how hard it would be to formulate an argument, even, even to organize your own thoughts.
00:23:28.140When you are worried that every word you use might contain something either offensive or that will turn you into a deplorable in the eyes of the respectable classes.
00:23:41.120And I think that is probably the most evil side of this.
00:23:49.860But taken to extremes, it is trying to rip our tongues out.
00:23:54.360It's trying to rob us of a fundamental tool of civilization, which is the ability to make our thoughts known to others and to communicate them.
00:24:05.240That was just so well articulated, Harley.
00:24:08.900It reminds me, there's a part in Douglas Murray's book, The Madness of Crowds, where he talked about cancel culture.
00:24:14.240And part of the problem is that the rules are constantly changing.
00:24:16.800So you may say something or do something that's perfectly appropriate today in 2021, but the rules that the left is creating the mob is constantly evolving.
00:24:27.220And so something that you say that's fine and politically correct today may not be politically correct tomorrow.
00:24:32.560And the impact that that has on society and your ability to, like you say, think clearly, speak clearly.
00:24:37.680I mean, I'll just pull out a couple of silly examples from the CBC article because it's so absurd.
00:24:43.620I think your point is completely correct, that they're trying to push fear and instill fear into people that no matter what they do, they're not going to be like there's hidden meanings in our words, even if we don't have those intentions.
00:24:59.440Like one of the examples is not to use the term spooky around Halloween, that spooky is used around Halloween to describe something that's frightening or strange or scary like a ghost.
00:25:09.800However, there's this obscure reference that during World War Two, it was used as a racial slur against black soldiers.
00:25:17.240So because even though the purpose of the word is different, it's not even the same word, right?
00:25:23.180But you shouldn't even use that word spooky at Halloween because it could be perceived by some hypersensitive small group as being racist.
00:25:30.280Another one that we've heard a lot of, I don't know if this was in the article or not, it probably was, but the idea that you shouldn't use the term master bedroom to describe the master, the biggest room in the house.
00:25:43.100And the interesting thing is that the use of that word master bathroom, it came into effect.
00:25:48.960I read about this when I first heard people trying to say, don't use that word.
00:25:52.380And it didn't have anything to do with slavery.
00:25:54.620It didn't have anything to do with the Jim Crow South or whatever.
00:25:58.500The term master bedroom was created by the real estate industry after the Second World War when there was the boom.
00:26:03.740And it was designed to make people feel like they are the master of their own domain and the master of their own home.
00:26:08.820So it doesn't even, both these words, it doesn't even have the root of, you know, anything to do with being racist.
00:26:15.240However, they're sort of superficially imposing that onto any word that sounds like it might sound like a word that might have a bad meaning.
00:26:22.600And, you know, this erasing of our language, to me, it's, I agree, it's funny in this article, so stupid.
00:26:29.840But at the same time, I know what they're doing.
00:26:32.400And as we've seen from recent history, like, like they're, the woke push towards, you know, changing our language, it's, it's having an impact, it's successful.
00:26:42.140How many people do you see nowadays that put their pronouns in their profile or in their bio?
00:26:47.980You know, a couple of years ago when Jordan Peterson first started talking about this issue, it was like, it was like, this is a very strange academic university battle.
00:26:55.100And now it's like, all around us. And it's like, you know, when they come up with these ideas, and start pushing it, they just seem to have a lot of success of steamrolling people, hardly so well.
00:27:06.180All that's just to say, I agree with what you're saying. And I thank you for, for bringing this to my attention. What do you think about all that?
00:27:15.400Well, I mean, the first thing that came to mind when I looked at the article was that the word lady refer, etymologically refers to the kneading of dough.
00:27:24.320The lady part refers to like a loaf of bread, it's like lofty, and it became lady over time. So is that insulting? Does that imply all women belong in the kitchen?
00:27:33.480You could make that argument, I could have written an article like this completely satirically, which is why it's, it was funny.
00:27:39.580But then again, most people who read it, probably don't have that ability. They just look at and they would laugh, or they'd be scared. But again, there are stupid examples, I read stupid examples in there saying, for example, first world problems, we use it, we use the phrase first world problems, but it's in a way of recognizing how spoiled we actually are.
00:27:59.400And they, the article will say, oh, it's actually insulting to, you know, less developed countries. Well, no, it's not. It's making fun of us. I remember talking to a co worker when he was asking how things are going in town with the recovery. And I said, oh, our Wi Fi isn't up yet.
00:28:14.320But if that's the worst of it, then I guess we're doing pretty well. He said, yeah, first world problems, you know, so saying, you know, saying we're going to cancel terms like that, along with terms we all recognize to be bad, it's just it's throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
00:28:29.680And I think it gets us back to laughing at it again. Even though, as you said, some of this stuff makes too much headway, because I don't think we know quite how to challenge it yet, unless we use words in a, in a, in a more kind of blunt fashion. And, you know, that doesn't work either.
00:28:47.720We're trying to, for example, reappropriate terms that have been deemed politically incorrect in the past. And if I could make one more, one more analogy about it, certain things that we're constantly replacing the words for because they become unacceptable.
00:29:06.160A new, a new word comes out every few years, for example, that we're supposed to use. And some of us don't understand why they're like, what, what's wrong with the other word? Oh, well, it's, it's racist or insensitive.
00:29:17.260And I would argue, well, then it's not the word. In that case, the word is almost a bandage. And it's the wound beneath that is, that is becoming infected, and it's infecting the bandage. So maybe it's this constant preoccupation with, with the thing it referring to as being bad and not the word.
00:29:33.920But again, a lot of us don't, don't, didn't have a problem with the concepts to begin with. So it's, it's a slippery slope, I agree. And learning to keep, keep abreast of these things is like being bilingual. It's like speaking a socially acceptable language and then speaking a private language.
00:29:49.200But in this case, I think it's, the examples are careless and silly enough that I think we can all laugh at them. So I recommend people just check out the article and, you know, check out the, the list of words because they're, they're pretty funny.
00:30:01.560It's, it's, it's certainly a silly, and I'm glad that True North covered it. So if you don't want to, if you don't want to go to the CBC website, you don't want to patronize that and you can just check it out through our website, tnc.news.
00:30:14.340Well, Harley, we're just so thrilled to have you on board. You're, you're obviously just a very well-rounded, well-read, intelligent person. You're going to bring a lot to True North. So we're, we're very lucky to have you and look forward to, I look forward to all the things, all the great things hopefully that you're going to do for us.
00:30:27.940Again, really happy to be here, Candice, and looking forward to talking to you anytime.
00:30:33.460Excellent. All right. Thank you so much. Thanks for tuning in. I'm Candice Malcolm, and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.