The Political Correctness Amnesty Program

A reckoning without redemption doesn’t do much good. Why bother preaching if you don’t take converts?

Photo by Silvan Arnet on Unsplash.

“Reflection is the beginning of reform.” — Mark Twain

There are a few notable ways in which the intricacies and vagaries of the English language have not stood modern society in good stead.

Translations can sometimes be very tricky; translations across vast swaths of space and time, even more so. One language isn’t an exact, perfect code for another, with easy one-to-one word substitutions.

In all language, as in the English language, context is paramount. A bit of missed context here, a small misunderstanding there, and all meaning can easily become lost in translation.

History is filled with examples.

For instance, when Spanish Conquistadores asked inhabitants of what today we call the Yucatan Peninsula, “What do you call this place?”, they received an answer: “Yucatan”.

One problem: “Yucatan” wasn’t the geographical name of the region- at all. The answer, “Yucatan,” meant something like, “We don’t understand what you’re saying,” or probably closer to, “Hear how they talk.”

In some cases, we moderns suffer from what can only be considered major…