New words provide a dark picture of the times
The way dictionaries grow and contract is always a sign of the times. The latest, somewhat dystopian update to Merriam-Webster’s online edition is sadly no exception.
Among the 250 new entries, several, including “alt-right” and “dogwhistle politics,” seem to tell an alarming story not only about the rise of the extreme right but also the success of that movement, to paraphrase George Orwell, in making lies sound truthful and hate respectable.
Merriam-Webster defines “altright” as “a right-wing, primarily online political movement or grouping based in the U.S. whose members reject mainstream conservative politics and espouse extremist beliefs and policies typically centered on ideas of white nationalism.”
Many members of the so-called “alt-right” can also claim the dubious title of “troll,” another new addition to the dictionary, meaning they “antagonize (others) online by deliberately posting inflammatory, irrelevant, or offensive comments or other disruptive content.”
We used to call the “alt-right” racists, even fascists, but the group’s milder self-label has proliferated so widely that lexicographers feel they can no longer ignore it.
This reflects not only the growth of the movement, but also the success of its tactical rebranding. A comprehensive new study of the “alt-right” by the British anti-racist organization Hope Not Hate shows that the group, which is recruiting at an alarming rate, is fixated on the idea of “mainstreaming” hate by lending it a friendlier face.
“Dog-whistle politics,” meanwhile, which the dictionary defines as “an expression or statement that has a secondary meaning intended to be understood only by a particular group of people,” also seeks to put lipstick on a pig.
As the extreme right grows, so too does the temptation for some politicians to reach out to this constituency, but in stealthy ways that won’t alienate mainstream voters. So we get Stephen Harper’s “snitch line for barbaric cultural practices,” Kellie Lietch’s “Canadian values test,” and, in the aftermath of the Charlottesville neo-Nazi march, Donald Trump’s ascription of “blame on both sides.” In every case, racism masquerading as something less sinister.
A dictionary’s mandate is not to dictate what a language should be, but to describe what it has become. The addition of “alt-right” is not an endorsement of the term, but it ought to be taken as a reminder of our duty to guard against the politically motivated degradation of language.
“Political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible,” Orwell famously wrote. “Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness.”
It’s Merriam-Webster’s job to chronicle English as it evolves, but it’s ours to defend the integrity of our language and thus our democracy by, among other things, calling racism by its name and demanding our leaders do the same.