Perversion Of Language

Adjacent headlines on Drudge Report today: Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is a native=born citizen of Cuban ethnicity, is referred to as a “Cuban.” Meanwhile, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an accused MS-13 gang member and wife beater, is referred to not as deported, or even mistakenly deported, but as a “hostage.”

A man born in the US, and whose native-born citizenship status was confirmed when he was a presidential candidate, is a “Cuban” because the Left doesn’t like him. But a man born in El Salvador, who entered the US illegally and was deported back to his home country, is a “hostage.”

If words have no fixed meaning, but mean whatever we want them to mean to further our agenda, then meaningful dialog becomes impossible, and only violence remains to settle disputes. Is that where we want to go? Because it is where “progressives” want to go. In fact, it is where they are going right now unless we stop them.

Sources are unclear about where Drudge’s ancestors originated. But say they came from Romania. Should we refer to Drudge as a “Romanian”? Absolutely not. Let us not sink to the level of the Left and aggravate racial and ethnic tensions. And should we refer to criminals in prison as “hostages”? Also absolutely not.

Insofar as we can, let us preserve the meaning of words. They are all we have to communicate with our fellow human beings. They are precious.