Friday's Guest: "Decoding the Language of the Left"

With the advent of the age of political correctness comes a new age of fear.

This fear is born out of a desire to maintain a certain societal harmony that is based on ignoring people's differences rather than celebrating them. The end result is a society that turns a blind eye to the most basic differences in human cultures based on the fear that to call attention to them would be to offend them terribly, or worse -- create social problems for themselves.

This fear even comes with its own language -- a system of code words, if you will -- that provide the foundation and help maintain the status quo. This year, the system is being played out on a national stage as those on the left attempt to use these code words to further their own agenda.

In this week's "Friday's Guest" colum, About.com commentator Jack Kerwick takes a look at the system of code words employed by the left and how it's being used to further Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

From the article:

Yet the left, no less frequently and perhaps to a far greater extent than the “racist” majority of whose motives it is forever suspicious, hesitates not in the least to resort to “code words” to achieve its goals.

With the exception of leftist politicians, like Barack Obama, who seek power that they can secure only by convincing the majority of voters that they share their love of country, leftists seldom sing praises to the United States. Most of their utterances are condemnatory. But whenever leftists condemn America, it is always white America they’re targeting. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that in the context of leftist denunciations of America, “white America” is a redundancy. When they accuse “America” of being “racist,” “sexist,” “patriarchal,” “homophobic,” “classist,” “oppressive,” “imperialist,” “Islamophobic,” and “fascist,” and when, like Michelle Obama, they say that America is suffering from an “empathy deficit,” it is the white majority generally, and “red-state” whites in particular, to whom they refer.