I wrote here two weeks ago about the Guardian changing its style guide to suggest replacing “climate change” with “climate emergency/crisis” and “climate skeptic” with “climate science denialist.” The thinking is that if you use melodramatic words, people will care more and think differently about a political issue. To change the world, change the language. Limit the language. This kind of lexical activism assumes the barriers to action are in our words, not in our ideas.

It’s not limited to climate change. Sunday’s L.A. Times opinion page carried an illiterate article by Jonathan M. Katz bearing a headline in line with this newfangled newspeak: “Call immigration detention centers what they really are: concentration camps.”