The conclusion of George Orwell’s essay “Politics and the English Language” includes these two sentences: “Stuart Chase and others have come near to claiming that all abstract words are meaningless, and have used this as a pretext for advocating a kind of political quietism. Since you don’t know what fascism is, how can you struggle against fascism?”

Doesn’t this remind you of attempts today to deflect attacks on critical race theory? A parental and governmental counterrevolution against CRT has exploded into life, and one of the ways defenders try to protect it is to advocate a kind of political quietism — since you don’t know what CRT is, how can you struggle against it?