OPINION:
In 2001, I wrote my first book, “The New Thought Police,” about the left’s mission to defeat conservatism and, consequently, destroy the core of America’s greatness through thought and speech control.
I never would have guessed that more than 12 years later, it would be more relevant than ever.
Leftists have always found it impossible to compete on the details of the issues, so they work to make discussion dangerous. If they can make certain words forbidden, banned or even illegal, all the better.
Because they are unable to persuade people about the rightness of their unjust cause, their mission becomes to frighten clear-thinking people out of the public arena.
The latest iteration illustrating the pathetic absurdity of the left and its reliance on thought and speech Gestapos once again comes wrapped in the cloak of “It’s for the children!” led by one of the more powerful women in business, Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook.
She, along with Anna Maria Chavez, the CEO of the Girl Scouts, penned an essay in The Wall Street Journal declaring they were both called “bossy” as girls, and now it’s time to ban the “b-word” because it keeps girls from “reaching their full potential.”
Fully embracing my bossy self, I’m not buying that for one minute, and neither should you. Case in point: Ms. Sandberg and Ms. Chavez were “victims” of the bossy accusation, and yet somehow it didn’t condemn them to lives of telling fortunes for $1.95 a minute.
Here are two bossy women, bossing everyone around, telling them they’re not allowed to call bossy people bossy. Which opens up the possibility this project is being funded by Michael Bloomberg and Michelle Obama. Who knew bossy people were so sensitive?
I don’t suppose Ms. Sandberg and Ms. Chavez get the irony of how being bossy as girls (and the jealousy they encountered) was very probably the trait that informed their drive to achieve more in life than even they could have imagined.
Amazingly, conservatives (young and old alike) manage to thrive despite being called all sorts of names by liberals, including racist, sexist, homophobic, racist, mean, racist, Nazis, Brownshirts, terrorists, dumb, dumber, and, oh yeah, racist.
Why do we prevail? Because we teach our children and remind ourselves that our sense of self is within us, and not controlled by the envious and disturbed.
I’m not saying the bullying that smart girls (and women) face doesn’t have an impact. It does. The answer, though, is not to indulge the liberal trope of blaming, and then using that blame as an excuse to control the thought and speech of an individual or of society as a whole.
Our answer is to empower ourselves, inevitably becoming the bosses of those who thought we were, well, bossy.
On issues of confidence, the only genuine and long-lasting answer is to build up and reinforce the self-esteem of girls themselves. Yet that’s a dangerous proposition for liberals. After all, if you instill confidence and independent thinking in little girls, they’ll turn conservative on you.
Keep in mind, however, this effort to reinforce the notion that people have to be careful what they say lest a little girl’s entire future is destroyed is also tied to the ongoing war on masculinity in this country.
The “war on boys” is another serious plank in the mission of the left to make sure everyone becomes unsure of themselves. In order to thrive, liberals need to create a society of frightened people, unwilling or unable to protect the nation and confront evil here at home and in the world.
Via the Obama White House, we are seeing the results of this generational emasculation every day in the massive and dangerous failure of our foreign policy.
Banning words has a long and storied history on the left. The entire PC movement was never about striving to not offend. Its real goal is to condition society into believing that none of us could trust ourselves or the most intimate aspect of our individuality: our thoughts and speech.
Ms. Sandberg’s “Ban Bossy” project is classically and insultingly liberal. It tells little girls everywhere that the environment is responsible for how they view themselves, that their power is at the mercy of the words complete strangers might choose to use.
Even the project itself implies that girls and women need to be protected and that they can’t thrive when facing obstacles. Many of us were bullied as children. I was and became a stronger, more confident person with the support and advice of a teacher.
That grade-school teacher didn’t tell me she would ban a word, but she did explain that the world was filled with angry, insecure individuals and that I would probably always have to deal with jerks.
She was right. All those bullies in the schoolyard who were obsessed with controlling everything, frightening everyone, stealing lunch money and punishing those who did not conform became liberals. They were jerks then and they’re jerks now.
The best way to deal with them is to point, laugh and defeat them in the arena.
Tammy Bruce is a radio talk-show host, New York Times best-selling author and Fox News political contributor.
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