Speaking Liberalese

I trust Financial Times columnist Janan Ganesh on this. I am confident that he hangs out with more liberals than I do. So, when he suggests that liberals have their own special language, I can only assent. He calls it liberalese. Do you speak it?

If Ganesh is right, it explains why liberal Democrats failed so conspicuously to communicate with the American people. It also tells us that the American left has become a cult, with its own special passwords. If you speak the language, presumably you belong. But you also exclude all of those who are not fluent in liberalese. 

I am even more intrigued by Ganesh’s analysis when he links it all to therapy. The cult followers of the American left seem to have seen the same therapist. They speak the same psychobabble, and they use the proper therapeutic terminology to signify that they have survived the same initiation ritual, and are now fully fledged members of the cult.

The new language is chock full of therapy jargon:

What char­ac­ter­ises the dia­lect that we might call Lib­eralese? First, psy­cho­thera­peutic jar­gon. The spray­ing around of such con­cepts as inten­tion­al­ity is an attempt to give things a sci­entific and even med­ical ven­eer by people who mostly stud­ied com­par­at­ive lit­er­at­ure. Second, an unbe­com­ing obses­sion with tran­si­ent pop cul­ture. Ref­er­ences to the “Bey­hive” and to “Brat sum­mer” are lost on much more of the pop­u­la­tion than lib­er­als think.

For the record, and considering that I spent more than a few years in a Freudian cult that has its own special language, my own experience makes this perfectly plausible.

One might even take it a step further and remark that the screaming ninnies who refuse to let you forget how much they hate the Donald are following instructions that their therapists gave them. Express your feelings, openly, honestly and shamelessly.

Then you can go off your meds.

As Ganesh points out, it is not just vocabulary. When Joe Biden took over the White House a new wave of liberals moved to Washington. They had their own mannerisms, their own dress codes, and of course their own language.

This tells us, rather vividly, that this group does not belong to the same nation as its opponents. For all the ranting about the Trump cult, these liberals are even more cult-like than the more Trumpian or Republican faction. 

As for the new liberal language, Ganesh describes it thusly:

Well, you were like­lier to hear someone vow to be “inten­tional”. Or use the phrase “redemp­tion arc”. Or accuse a third per­son of hav­ing “main char­ac­ter syn­drome”. Or of doing something “per­form­at­ive”. You were like­lier to hear “toxic” and “cos­play” and “nar­ciss­ism” and — more on this in a bit — “gas­light­ing”. Your date was like­lier to say, “I’m an empath”.

I defy anyone to explain what a “redemption arc” is? As for empaths, I have long since opined on the sadistic empaths among us. 

In truth, you do not need to know what any of this means. The terms are empty signifiers, roughly equivalent to passwords. How many of those who toss around the term performative have even heard of J. L. Austin.

Anyway, after four years of Biden, this liberalese has infested the culture. We see it on television ads and even in football games. I will take his word on that one.

Again, none of it means anything. Those who do not belong understand that the special liberal language is designed to exclude them. It all explains the Democratic Party failures during the last election.

In fairness, Ganesh continues, Kamala herself did not run around using this language. And she did not make diversity a pillar of her new policies. 

And yet, it does not matter. Her proxies spoke perfect liberalese and, as for diversity, she was the ultimate diversity candidate. She did not have to say it. She was it.

It was ultimately a pathway to the right.

Mean­while, the right is out there, in people’s ears, on their screens and all too easy to under­stand.

Please subscribe to my Substack, for free or preferably for a fee.