Any idea what CSE is? I was midway through an article in the Sunday Times when I had to refer back to the beginning to find out. It sounded to me a bit like a defunct Building Society or perhaps one of those anonymous companies that deals in logistics. It turns out that CSE is an acronym for Child Sexual Exploitation – otherwise known as child rape, child molestation or child sexual abuse. It was used throughout the otherwise excellent and deeply troubling article about ongoing grooming gang activity. By reducing child rape to a sterile sounding acronym, the police, the safeguarding officers and finally the journalist helped to take the physical horror out of the whole depraved saga. As this quote from South Yorkshire Police demonstrates, the police could be talking about a new strategy in relation to CCTV or traffic, not the wholesale rape of children: “If anyone is concerned about the service they have received in relation to CSE, we urge them to get in touch so we can explore this fully.”
Ludwig Wittgenstein warned against the “bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language” and the increasing preference for obfuscatory language in our public discourse is entirely befuddling what remains of our collective brainpower.
The rebrand of euthanasia to assisted dying, of illegal migrants to irregular migrants, of racism into anti-racism, female circumcision to FGM, money printing to QE, the dole to benefits, crime to anti-social behaviour, lying to misspeaking, poverty to low-income-families, all help to soften or defuse tough subjects. If we give something horrendous a bureaucratic or gentle name, then perhaps all the challenging implications will go away. In school settings punishment has been reduced to sanctions, police cells are now custody suites, and most insanely, bad mental health has been rebranded as mental health. But as Ayn Rand said, “You can ignore reality, but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality”.
But can people really be duped by language? Of course, just ask any transwoman. Or my friend whose latest squeeze introduced her to ENM relationships. Haven’t heard of them? No, nor had she, until her creep of a boyfriend explained that ENM relationships were the ‘latest thing’ in romance: Ethical Non-Monogamy, a.k.a. shagging around.
As is commonly said now: this has got to stop. As the old saying goes, let us call a spade a spade, and child rape, child rape not CSE.
Other example of obfuscatory acronyms and euphemisms most welcome in the comments below.
Joanna Gray is a writer and confidence mentor.
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To acronyms and euphemisms, add opposites (as per 1984):
Diversity is Conformity
Include is Exclude
Equity is Iniquity
The other related linguistic fraud is changes of definition, without explaining why. Maybe it is done deliberately to exploit common understanding of what it used to mean. Spot what has been done in the medical field recently, e.g.
And then when you object to the new, inaccurate use of a term, you are laughed at for being a dinosaur. This is especially true when talking to young people who have grown up only hearing the new definition and who believe that any usage dating to before they started school is by definition antiquated.
Raping white girls is okay. If it were gangs of Catholics raping Muzzies you would hear a different tune.
Other words with no meaning:
-Science (or do you mean $cientism, Church of)
-Climate Change (oh shut up)
-Evolution (random shit generates a brain with 70 billion neurons)
-Relativity (Einstein was insane and/or a comedian)
-‘Pride’ (child porn, child sex, public nudity, mental illness etc is not a source of ‘pride’)
-‘Pandemic’ of fake tests and a death rate of 0.3%
-Viruses (and other phantoms like say leprechauns)
etc
Transwoman = man
Vaccine = drug of unknown action that doesn’t stop you from catching or passing on a “disease”
Gender = there are an infinite number, make up your own definition
Chemical and surgical castration: “gender affirmative care”,
Abortion: “reproductive choices”,
Extermination of the elderly: “assisted dying”,
Discrimination against whites: “anti-racism”,
Discrimination against men: “feminism”,
Etc, etc…
There’s also:
‘Vaccine’ Something that can (on occasion) help to protect against an ill defined illness, ignoring any side effects, including death.
‘Jewish Science’
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-2-pro-nazi-nobelists-attacked-einstein-s-jewish-science-excerpt1
‘Sustainable Energy’
Any uneconomic and unsustainable Any intermittent Energy source requiring subsidies, and total control of the population.
‘Safe and Effective’
Just don’t trust the treatment, or those promoting it , EVER!
I agree that language is distorted for political reasons, but this has happened to the core word in this article: rape. There is a huge difference between a 17yo boy doing what comes naturally with his 15yo girlfriend, and a 17yo boy dragging a 15yo stranger into the bushes, but both are now referred to as rape.
A related word is trafficked, did this word exist 20 years ago? Now it seems to be deployed to prosecute/persecute certain people.
The first is “statutory rape” the second is true rape.
It is jargon, corporate speak. It is to separate the ordinary from the “in crowd”. Everyone does it. The Armed Forces are very good at it, separating out the civvies from the squaddies. Who knows what an “egg banjo”, “NATO standard” is, or “babies heads” are? Managers who say “speak to myself” are guilty not only of doing it but of self aggrandisement. Obviously “myself” is so much more important than “me”.
It was CSE Certificate of Secondary Education when I was young!
GCSE was the general certificate of secondary education
Puts a whole new slant on ‘Craming for your CSE!.. ha..as if, by the way they might refer to it as minor appreciation soon,!..surely not a chance,..Oops silly me they already do..won’t be long before its just i misdemeanor 😲
Hang the f@£king lot of them, dirty low life scum!
How about “MAP”, which now stands for a “minor attracted person” – I.e. a paedophile?
Here’s one that occurred to me: MP means a person devoid of intellect or morals, in it for their personal aggrandisement . Psychopath and sexual pervert and corrupt to his fingertips. Will betray anybody at any time. Has no concept of truth or decency.
How about “Grooming Gang” for the systematic sexual abuse and rape of white British underage girls by gangs of men of predominantly Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage.
The problem is that some people want to ban certain terms. MSN removes comments that mention gender dysphoria, a real condition that some people suffer from, and illegal immigrant/economic migrant.
Evade. Ayn Rand said “you can evade reality….” etc and the difference is important.
BLM. Which means: Only we matter.