It’s been years since I’ve blogged here. I’ve been so busy that it’s hard for me to take time to write about anything outside what I’m doing for work.
Anyway, I’m writing here because I see a lot of people inadvertently spreading state propaganda and giving Trump’s ideas and actions legitimacy, which I refuse to do.
- Don’t use Trump’s title. Use only his name—‘Donald Trump’ is good enough for him. I never used his title during the first go-around with him, and I certainly won’t now.
- Avoid referring to Trump’s executive orders by name if you can, since these names are often propagandistic and often constitute hate speech. Refer instead to what they do. Just link to the EO or a news article on the EO for reference. (Sometimes you may need to refer to an EO by name, but avoid it as much as possible.)
- Relatedly, don’t refer to Trump’s regulations by name if they’re written in a propagandistic way, which a lot of them are. Just refer to what the regulation does and link to them for reference (or a news article that explains the rule).
- Don’t refer to last year’s benefit-slashing, tax-cutting, billionaire-aggrandising budget reconciliation bill by its official name. Refer to it as HR1 or something else neutral, if you don’t want to use outright epithets like ‘One Big Ugly Bill’. There’s nothing ‘beautiful’ about that bill, and it’s hard to refer to it as such with a straight face.
- Denali is Denali. Lake Ontario is Lake Ontario. The Gulf of Mexico is the Gulf of Mexico. Google and Apple are spineless for going along with Trump’s jingoistic renaming sprees.
By refusing to allow Trump and his goons to name things, you’re depriving him of some of his power. After all, Trump loves branding. It’s his entire shtick—Trump University, Trump Shuttle, Trump Vodka, Trump Steaks, Trump Ice (not to be confused with Trump ICE), Trump cologne (possibly called ‘Success by Trump’, but I can’t be assed to search right now), Trump Magazine, Trump Bibles, Trump sneakers, Trump NFTs, Trump Tower, Trump World Tower, Trump Mobile, Trump watches, Trump Taj Mahal, Trump Network, Trump Mortgage, Tour de Trump, Trump: The Game, Trump presidency, ad nauseam.