Redefining terms like “hate speech” is obviously part of the fascist project
The situation in the US is a slide into authoritarianism. That much is plain to see. Some people are wary of using the label ‘fascist’ perhaps because their only mental model of what’s going on is a hazy understanding of events from the 1930s in Nazi Germany.
However, there have been many authoritarian regimes that have done unspeakable harm to their people, including mass murder of populations. It starts with language, and ends with concentration camps (invented by the Spanish in Cuba, by the way). This article in Gizmodo includes a list of banned words that will get your National Science Foundation (NSF) grant funding application rejected.
For those looking for precedents of authoritarian regimes beginning their censorship efforts by targeting language immediately upon gaining power, you might want to check out this page I created with Perplexity which summarises some examples. It also gives references for further reading.
According to the Washington Post, a word like “women” appearing will get the content flagged, but it will need to be manually reviewed to determine if the context of the word is related to a forbidden topic under the anti-DEI order. Trump and his fellow fascists use terms like DEI to describe anything they don’t like, which means that the word “women” is on the forbidden list while “men” doesn’t initiate a review.
Straight white men are seen through the MAGA worldview as the default human and thus wouldn’t be suspicious and in need of a review. Any other type of identity is inherently suspect.
Some of the terms that are getting flagged are particularly eyebrow-raising in light of the Nazi salutes that Trump supporters have been giving since he took office. For example, the term “hate speech” will get a paper at NSF flagged for further review. Redefining terms like “hate speech” is obviously part of the fascist project.
Source: Gizmodo
Image: List of banned words for NSF grants shared by Ashenafi Shumey Cherkos