Stanford University has put out a list that they referred to
as the elimination of harmful language initiative.
In other words, it is a lengthy list of words that you
should not use because they are offensive in multiple ways.
Now the list is insane.
In fact, the word I just used insane is included in the list.
In fact a lot of words that you use on a daily basis is included in the list.
You should ignore this list, you should dispense of this list.
And the individuals who have compiled this list need to step outside
of the faculty lounge and take a good hard look at the real world around them.
Now, what do I mean?
I'm gonna give you some examples, there are many, okay?
I'm not even gonna get to all the insane examples here, but
I'll get to the ones that stood out to me most.
Now they break the categories down by different categories, right?
So there's the ableist category which we're about to dive into.
So the word addicted, unacceptable,
you should use hooked or get a load of this devoted instead.
No you guys.
[CROSSTALK] >> [LAUGH] That's
not the meaning.
>> I didn't leave the left, the left left me.
I don't know what this is.
If this is what the left is.
>> It is within the left is.
>> This is not helpful in any way, okay?
Addicted is not an offensive word, okay?
This is what they argue.
It trivializes the experiences of people who deal with substance abuse issues.
I don't think it does.
I think it just describes what they're experiencing with their addiction.
Addiction and addicted, these are words that have meanings.
You don't get to, I don't know, rewrite what they mean or
apply connotations that no one else is applying except for
whoever is involved in this effort.
>> Yeah, so I once had a lunch basically with a bunch of folks who are in
these kind of circles and there's about five or seven years ago, but
they were shocked and outraged by me.
They thought it was too right wing in that I didn't agree with a lot of this crap,
right?
And the reason I tell you that is because people live in their bubbles and
in their bubble, this makes sense.
Now look, there's some words as you're gonna see here that actually are bad and
you can create a list of those actual words and
I'm gonna tell you some of those in a second.
By the way later, I'll get in trouble for actually saying those words.
>> I know because this is how they feel powerful.
This is how they feel like they're making an impact on society, but they don't
realize the impact they're making is actually an incredibly negative one, okay?
It's not a positive impact, okay?
And they're obsessed with rhetoric, obsessed.
And that's the thing that stands out to me about this the most.
Remember we're talking about Stanford, which is located in which state Cenk?
>> California. >> Okay, keep that in mind.
Keep that in mind, California.
They're very concerned about individuals experiencing disabilities.
Okay, very concerned.
Except they're not, they're worried about words.
They're not worried at all about actions that negatively impact people experiencing
disabilities.
And I'll get to that point and prove that point in just a moment.
But let me give you some other examples.
They think it's unacceptable to use the phrase blind review or blind study.
They suggest you should use anonymous review or masked study because it
unintentionally perpetuates that disability is somehow abnormal or
negative, does it though, does it?
>> No, it doesn't.
>> What?
Okay, let me give you more.
Don't refer to someone using a wheelchair as someone who is
confined to a wheelchair.
You should instead use person who uses a wheelchair.
Why?
Using person first language helps to not define people by
just one of their characteristics.
Also, users of wheelchairs often find them to be an essential tool for
their freedom instead of thinking of them as a prison.
Do you guys get the criticism that I'm providing here, right?
They are interpreting the use of certain words like
they're applying connotations to these words like they
are applying like no one else is applying, no one else.
Look, it's just like the whole Latin X thing, okay?
I don't wanna hear from a group of white faculty members from an ivy league
school about how we should use Latin X because Latin X is non gendered language.
I wanna hear from the Latino community, which by the way, we have through multiple
polls and they don't want us changing their freaking language.
How about that?
>> Yeah, so I'm gonna give you examples of words that actually are problematic.
In fact, I'll start with one in a second.
But I'm gonna read it through a bunch cuz they're amazing.
So they say committed by suicide.
I'm sorry, committed suicide is out.
So okay, what are we supposed to say?
Died by suicide.
Guys, what difference does it make?
Who are we kidding?
I mean, what are you doing?
What are you doing?
You think that helps the feelings of the person who committed suicide?
I'm sorry, died by suicide.
Okay, ow one of the words that's next to it is cripple.
Hey, you know what, that makes sense?
Don't use cripple.
That's weirdly pejorative, you get it, right?
>> I think everyone understands that it's pejorative.
You get what I'm saying?
>> I do, but some are not necessarily the case.
I'll get to that in a second that it's not as clear, right?
But so if you wanna have a word of uncool words like, hey,
try not to use those, those are kind of dushy, okay?
By the way that's probably bad word.
>> Everything is though?
No, but my biggest problem with this is why do they get to decide what is and
is not acceptable?
Why do they get to decide what is and is not offensive?
Who are these people number one, okay?
Number two, am just sick with the obssesion with words and
language policing and basically any type of action being
rhetorical as opposed to based on the real world, right?
So it would require them to get out of the faculty lounge, right?
Because again, Stanford is in the state of California.
California has the largest homeless population in the country.
And you know what actually hurts disabled people,
individuals who need to use a wheelchair?
The fact that there's no accessibility for them to get around in places that have
massive homeless encampments, blocking walkways, blocking sidewalks.
I'll give you an example.
This is a recent picture in Los Angeles, one of the encampments.
Okay, so if you're in a wheelchair, what do you do?
And guess what?
The idea of moving people or clearing the walkway
is considered incredibly cruel and unacceptable.
You can't do it.
Okay, fine.
So instead of giving you the ability to get around in your
real chair in California, we're gonna go ahead and language police on your behalf.
Okay, great.
>> I'm sure that's gonna make you feel a lot better that you can't get around?
All right, so other words that are banned, walking.
Hey, we're gonna have walking office hours.
No, cuz some people can't walk in.
Guys, we know that, come on, you're being ridiculous.
>> No look, but do you guys understand when the right wing claims that there's
censorship from the left, this is the kind of stuff they're referring to.
Now, look, they overplay it and
they claim that the left wing is far more censorious than the right wing is.
The right wing has its own flavor of censorship.
And we have experienced that under the leadership of Elon musk on Twitter.
But when you are more obsessed with policing the words that people use,
the normal regular rhetoric that people engage in.
And that is what your obsession is, as opposed to actually fighting to improve
the lives of the individuals that you're allegedly doing this on behalf of.
You lose the argument, you just do.
And you're also incredibly annoying and you just come off as someone
who's obsessed with scolding others for using perfectly fine words in my opinion.
>> And by the way that you're going to guarantee losses and elections,
absolutely guarantee, because no one agrees with you.
And then all the issues that you claim to care about are gonna get killed.
You're never gonna pass any bills,
you're never gonna help anyone cuz you're obsessed with dumbass policing language.
But I promise you guys that there were some words where I'm like, okay, I get it.
So now when we get into describing people based on generals, etcetera.
And I'm gonna say these words because they.
>> Don't even bother.
You know what's gonna happen.
>> No, I'm gonna because guys, I'm not gonna agree to have an idiotic
conversation where the words sound very similar and some of them are not cool and
some of them are cool, but I can't tell you which ones are which, right?
So when it comes to transgender people.
So I think by now everybody knows you can't say that, right?
But a lot of people don't know it, right?
So, okay, you wanna put that on the list?
Okay, man.
People used to say that all the time back in the day, but
that's definitely uncool now, right?
She mails out.
Did everybody know that?
I think everybody knew, but I'm not positive everybody knew that.
You make a list of that.
Maybe that's slightly helpful.
They say transgendered is wrong.
Well, I don't want to offend people if it's transgender instead of transgendered.
Okay, great I'm happy to know that.
But at the same time if somebody says transgendered and then you criticize them
or you say that they're being discriminatory, then no, I'm sorry, but
you're detail oriented or whatever other word you're using for crazy, okay?
No, somebody's not trying to be offensive when they say transgendered, okay?
Now look at the, but the capper.
The word she, no you can't say it.
How do we communicate?
>> No, there's more, it's endless.
You should say the person's name or they.
But what about the she's out there who wanna be referred to as she's.
How about that?
>> Why are you taking away their rights to be referred in a way that they want?
>> It's super frustrating.
Okay, let's get off the gender stuff for
a second because then there's the category of culturally appropriative.
Okay, fascinating.
The first word in that list is brave.
>> So we can't say brave anymore.
>> And by the way, they don't even give you a substitute, right?
They say none, do not use.
>> Look, I'm gonna be fair to them.
>> No, don't be.
They're not fair to us or to anyone else.
Why be fair to them?
They think every word we use is intentionally evil and discriminatory.
No why would we be fair to them?
They cause mayhem with their nonsense.
>> No, I'm just being fair to the to the news that we're doing here.
I'm hoping that what they mean is you can't refer to
native Americans as braves, right?
Okay, that's more justifiable.
But if they're saying you're just not allowed to use the word brave,
we're back to, for crazy they say that what you should use instead is surprising.
Well, if we couldn't use brave, that would be surprising.
>> Yeah, no that's fair.
I didn't think about it in that context.
So if it's used in the context of referring to someone who's native
American.
Okay, I understand that.
But I do wanna give you a few more more examples.
So on the warpath they don't like.
You should use mad or on the offensive instead.
>> Or use the language language that's not at all offensive and
what I wanna say instead of what you wanna say.
And so I'm on the warpath against your dumbass list.
And no native Americans are not the only people that go on warpath.
I go on warpaths.
I'm not a native American.
My people back in the day went on a lot of warpath, okay?
And by the way, they apparently Philippines is out, but
I I didn't notice that Turkey's out.
Why isn't Turkey out.
>> Philippines's out?
>> Yeah, you have to say Philippine islands or something else like that.
Guys, what are you doing?
>> You can't say balls?
By the way.
>> You can't say guys.
>> No, I'm part of the resistance, I'm gonna say guys, I say guys all the time.
Everyone knows I'm not literally referring to individuals with penises, okay?
Who identify as men.
>> Unless apparently you have some sort of mental issues in your part of the faculty.
>> That's offensive Cenk.
Balls to the wall, that's also offensive.
>> That's offensive for different reasons.
You should say accelerate efforts instead.
>> Because that sounds really like what you want.
If you're giving a speech to wrong people, we've got to be accelerate efforts.
That's not how real people talk.
>> Don't say ballsy, you should say bold or risk taker instead
because ballsy it attributes personality traits to anatomy.
>> And why are the male testicles positive.
Guys we know, okay?
There's extreme examples of that, but this ain't it.
>> But my favorite one Cenk and I wish I was on camera when I made this
prediction because I know I've said it to you multiple times.
Karen is on the list, okay?
And instead of using the word Karen, they argue you should say demanding or
entitled and their specific, white woman.
>> That makes it worse, not better.
>> How about we not make generalizations about any group of people,
including white women.
How about that?
But I told you, right?
I told you that eventually all these annoying Karen videos that we're doing
are gonna come back to haunt us because they are offensive.
They make generalizations about white women.
You know it.
>> No they don't,
I don't agree with that because a lot of times the Karens won't even be white.
>> No when have we done a Karen video that's not white?
>> I think we did one.
Yeah, we did.
But look, that's a fine conversation.
Hey, are you offended by the word Karen?
Cuz is it being overused, is it just about white women?
We're not looking to shut down conversation.
We're looking to have more conversation.
These folks are looking to shut down the conversation.
And finally, the part that tries to be crazy is the thing that Anna mentioned
near the beginning.
Did we have a vote on this?
>> No, of course not.
>> Who put you guys in charge?
I'm sorry, you folks in charge.
Well, the answer is no one.
But they will then go on social media or wherever else and go.
Well, we have been offended.
So we win.
And we we are holier than thou.
>> Well, that's great. >> I don't think you are.
>> No constitutional protections against getting offended.
So be as offended as you want.
We're gonna speak and use words that we wanna use.
And the people who actually have a say in that is our audience.
>> Yeah, look you know what?
People are gonna find this offensive too, but
we got 21 million subscribers overall, okay?
So 21 million people said, yeah, we like what they're doing.
They kind of speak for us.
How many does the Stanford faculty lounge have, okay?
So if we're voting, we know who won, what people actually care about,
what people actually.
You know why they chose us?
Cuz we fight for higher wages.
We fight for transgender rights and we don't let Republicans bully them.
We fight against them.
Don't say gay bill.
We fight for everyone in our community.
We fight for health care for everyone to improve everyone's lives.
We don't go, you can't say she or he [LAUGH] I'm holier than you.
And then lose every goddamn election for no reason at all, and
let those communities get brutalized by the right wing while you're having tea and
crumpets in your faculty lounge.