The war of the words

The great Austrian satirist Karl Kraus said, "I master the language of others.  Mine, however, does what it wants with me."  When language, the unique human achievement, gains control over us, we have ceded it too much power.

The British historian and TV presenter Lucy Worsley stands accused of racism because she quoted John Wilkes Booth in a show about the history of slavery in the United States.  You probably know what Booth said while listening to Lincoln's Second Inaugural, and what he subsequently did.  Apparently Worsley's BBC audience were so shocked that she had to apologize for historical accuracy.  Booth didn't say "African American" and he didn't employ the mealy-mouth euphemism "N-word."  I watch a lot of British panel shows on YouTube and I can tell you that "shit" and "fuck" are frequently employed, not to mention "twat," "bitch" and "cock."  This is where they choose to draw the line.

Across the sea, the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland banned a commercial where two women discuss the correct insertion of tampons.  Viewers complained that it was "demeaning to women" and contained "sexual innuendo," not suitable for children.  Ireland has defied the Catholic Church to legalize divorce and abortion, but apparently menstruation is still beyond the pale.  Yet it happens every day, even to nuns.

The Goya boycott -- that's the canned food, not the painter -- has provided the Trump campaign an opportunity to lie about Joe Biden in Spanish, somehow invoking Nicolas Madura and Che Guevara at the same time.  (What, no Castros?)  "Biden no es socialista," says a Washington Post fact-check that stretches the limits of my high school Spanish.  But Puerto Ricans forced to leave their homes after Hurricane Maria have probably already made up their minds about Presidente Papertowels. 

Rep. Jim Clyburn, (D-SC), the House majority whip, went on CNN yesterday to compare Trump to Mussolini and Putin to Hitler.  He was perturbed about Trump's postpone-the-election bluster and thinks Orange Duce will still try to invent some "emergency" to cling to power.  (Not surprising, with Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance, Jr., nosing around in his mephitic business dealings.)  This is fun, although flattering to Putin and Trump, but I'm not sure it gets us anywhere.  Trump would prefer to be Silvio Berlusconi, an actual billionaire who was always surrounded by hot women and didn't care if people joked about his dyed hair.  Given the whimsicality of Italian voters, he could be prime minister again one day.  Anyway, no meathook for him.

Unlike Anthony Fauci, who is trusted because of his commitment to facts, Deborah Birx wants to be a loyal member of the administration.  Now she's getting it from both sides because, responding to criticism from Nancy Pelosi, she wasn't quite able to confirm that Trump is doing the most wonderful, magnificent job of handling the pandemic in the history of the world.   Also unlike Fauci, she does not have a protected job.  I wonder if there's any more room under the bus.

It's not just the quack cures and the demented conspiracy theories.  Many Americans suffer from health illiteracy, anatomy illiteracy and plain illiteracy (as in the difficulty high school graduates have with the labels on their medicine).  Doctors are being provided with a "Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit" to help them dumb it down to the reading level of a typical American.  Makes you proud, doesn't it?  This is why the Founders limited the vote to property-owning men who, presumably, knew how to read.  Universal free education was supposed to make universal democracy possible.  What would Karl Kraus say?  "The secret of the demagogue is to make himself as stupid as his audience so they believe they are as clever as he."