About two weeks ago I reported on a mini-kerfuffle at the Psychology Today website. Respected social psychologist Lee Jussim at Rutgers, responding to a piece in the British Medical Journal that created a number of Woke Neologisms, created his own piece listing anti-Woke neologisms. Here’s the original BMJ article, now publicly available (click on screenshot):
Now it’s not clear how serious that article is (BMJ tends to publish humor in the Christmas issues), but at least the authors Esther K. Choo and Robert F. DeMayo are real people. And although the article seems to be lighthearted and semi-humorous, it does so by poking fun of men. In other words, if it were poking fun of women, it wouldn’t have been published since it would be seen and decried as a sexist screed. So it doesn’t really matter whether it was meant to be funny, for underlying it is a general critique of male behavior.
Jussim posted a response on his blog at Psychology Today: a list of his own neologisms mocking the wokeness behind Choo et al.’s piece. But his piece was immediately removed, for while you can mock male behavior, you can’t mock wokeness. Here’s Jussim’s tweet after he was censored:
PsychToday took down the Orwelexicon Post.
I am appealing.
If I lose the appeal, it will reappear, trust me. Might take a few days.— The Dread Pirate Jussim (@PsychRabble) January 17, 2020
He clearly lost the appeal. But his “Owelexicon” post has reappeared—in Quillette, of course. Click on the screenshot to see it:
Although Quillette is promoting this article heavily, the terms are of variable humor quality. Here are a few I like:
Blancofemophobia: Prejudice against white women, as exemplified by dismissing the beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors of white women with phrases such as, “White women white womening.” See here for a real-world example. [JAC: Check out those examples; there’s more than one.]
Brexistential fear: An irrational fear that Brexit will lead to the end of the world as we know it.
Brophobia: Fear of men having a conversation among themselves.
Emotional imperialism: The strange belief that your feelings should dictate someone else’s behavior.
Evopsychophobia: Fear of evolutionary psychology, especially of the possibility that social groups (such as men and women) might have evolved different psychological traits and behavioral tendencies.
Istaphobia: Fear of being called an “ist” (racist, sexist, fascist, etc.), usually followed by self-censorship. [JAC: This is my favorite, for it is real and drives a lot of behavior.]
Wokanniblism: A low-carb, high-protein diet consisting mainly of eating your own.
What bothers me about this kerfuffle is the double standard used in such spoofs, as evidenced in BMJ publishing one that calls out men, and Psychology Today censoring one calling out wokeness. Psychology Today is clearly suffering from istaphobia.
It’s hardly a double standard – conservatives just can’t do comedy.
The comments to Jussim’s piece in Quillette include some great additions to this lexicon, too.
What bothers me most about all of this is that a lot of people who should know better have fallen into what I think of as the “Trump Trap”.
Trump and the Republicans respond to any and all criticism not with a counter-argument based on rational thought, but with a personal attack on the person expressing the criticism. This is a result of his “leadership”. There really is such a thing as leadership, setting an example.
What this does is it keeps potential allies from finding each other and uniting toward a common goal. As long as our real, actual opposition can keep us divided and in turmoil, they are safe from our effective countermeasures.
Divide and conquer, so they say.
L
Emotional imperialism is my favorite. I expect to use it often, assuming I remember to do so.
Occam’s Shoe Horn will be on my list, along with cisandrophobia. But in all honesty, I’ve been in plenty of situations where a great many of these terms would apply, especially at work. However, I’m pretty sure that any usage of said terms will land me in the unemployment line.
My favourite too. Prof. Richard Dawkins points out that we use speech (and other forms of communication) to modify somebody else’s brain state. I guess Emotional Imperialism goes further – not only do you ‘communicate’ you expect their behaviour to reflect your expectations more closely.
Some excellent neologisms on both sides. Some a bit over the top or nasty.
What really fascinates me are these ‘Glaucomflecken’, where the f… do they come in?
They don’t, Brexit revoked their visas : )))))
Am I allowed a rational fear that Brexit will do great damage to the UK (where I live)?
No, you’re not allowed to have rational fears. That is so disrespectful of people paralysed by their irrational fears.
I haven’t watched the news today, the first day after the UK’s seppuku.
Yep. I have that as well.
I would be afraid if people *didn’t* have rational fears over the mess that has happened and is to come on this matter!
I am label-o-phobic(?). 🙂
Long-term consumption leads to woketosis.