A Modest Proposal for Improving Our American Language

On March 12, 2025, the New York Times published the article “These Words Are Disappearing in the New Trump Administration.” The story described how the NYT staff examined federal agency websites and official memos and compared the wording from before January 20 and after. They discovered around 200 words and phrases that have been removed entirely or replaced with more acceptable terms.

It is, I must admit, an interesting list. I suppose such editing of the American language (which I distinguish here from the English language, since these linguistic policies will ultimately have no effect on English) might be an outcome of making English the country’s official language. But if the intent is to cleanse the language of unacceptable words and ideas, we shouldn’t go halfway. If we’re going to do this, let’s do it with the kind of gung-ho enthusiasm for which this country is famous. In that spirit, I am proposing other words and terms that our current president’s administration has somehow inexplicably missed.

Their, Theirs: They and them are on the NYT list, but what’s to stop subversive people from sneaking in a their or theirs? We can’t have people using threatening pronouns. (Oops, pronouns is on the NYT list.)

Woman, Lady, Ladies: With such words as female, females, women, feminism, and pregnant people (and pregnant persons) on the list, how could woman, lady, and ladies be excluded? (Oh dear, excluded is on the list, too.)

Health: While pollution, environmental quality, trauma, person- and people-centered care, health disparity, and mental health have all been scrubbed, we’re not seeing the big picture, which in this case is health, a concept that is becoming irrelevant.

Science: The word science isn’t on the NYT list, but it should be. After all, climate science, climate crisis, and clean energy are there, and as I’ve argued elsewhere (https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/salad-bar-model-science-architect-looks-skepticism-schmalz-faia/?published=t), all branches of science are connected, since they all are ways of understanding the same reality. Climate science is not an isolated field; if it’s wrong, a lot of other science—science we depend on every day—is also fundamentally wrong.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer: The terms LGBT, LGBTQ, nonbinary (and non-binary), orientation, trans, transexual, and transgender are on the NYT list, and the Times gives examples of the T and TQ being removed from LGBT and LGBTQ (leaving LGB). But why stop there? If the ultimate goal is to make this country a place where straight men can be safe and thrive (which seems to be our current president’s administration’s intent), then let’s also remove every other word that hints at sexual diversity (along with the term sexual diversity, which is surprisingly not on the list).

Fairness and Justice: Terms suggesting that fairness and justice might be qualities worth preserving in this country, such as equal opportunity, equity, equality, underrepresented, social justice, and racial justice, are clearly unacceptable. So let’s ensure that the words fairness and justice are themselves forbidden.

Empathy, Humane, Compassion: Words and ideas that might lead people to treat other people as fellow humans, such as allyship, accessible, victim, disabilities, and vulnerable populations, are incompatible with the direction this country is heading. As are the more general terms empathy, humane, and compassion, which the American language no longer needs.

Education, Intelligence: Our current president has never placed much value on education, so if words such as socioeconomic, cultural competence, cultural heritage, institutional, political, systemic, sex, sexuality, and race belong on the NYT list, then surely education and intelligence do as well. We won’t need them anymore.

Cosmopolitan: Visit any city—London, for example—that is regarded as cosmopolitan, and you’ll see a lot of different-looking and -sounding people, with all kinds of skin tones and cultures and languages. Somehow or other, all these people seem to get along. We can’t have that in this country, so on the NYT list we see Native American, Black, Latinx, BIPOC, hispanic minority, ethnicity, tribal, racial diversity, racial identity, multicultural, cultural sensitivity, diverse communities, and indigenous community. Let’s add cosmopolitan to the list and then get rid of all the unappealing non-white things that are making our own cities cosmopolitan and inclusive. (Uh oh, inclusive is on the list.)

Democracy: It’s not unusual for governments to attempt to control the language of their people. As far as I’m aware, however, it is unusual for supposedly democratic governments to do so. So let’s get rid of that annoying word democracy, since I expect it will continue to get in the way of progress in this country.

Words that don’t belong on the list: I can understand why most of the terms are on the list; they can potentially cause people to think dangerous ideas. But why remove racism, prejudice, bias, segregation, injustice, oppression, hate speech, stereotype, privilege, and GBV (“gender-based violence”)? After all, aren’t these the very ideas that our current president’s administration would like to promote?

Finally, the Future: If this country is to become a place where such concepts as equality, inclusive leadership, diverse communities, activists, immigrants, and sense of belonging don’t belong in our language (Of course, belong is on the list), then it’s not a future many of us look forward to. Let’s stop talking about or even thinking about the future.