The Magic of (politically correct) Words II

So there were gaps in Magic Word Power (my post of May 9). I apologize. How could I omit "mentally challenged"? It’s an area in which we have made enormous progress. There are no more poor students, have you noticed? And the solution was so easy. All we had to do was lower our standards. Everybody has a right to an A after all. I’m surprised they didn’t enshrine that in the Canadian Charter of Rights.

But maybe they should get the anthem right first: Oh Canada, our home and native land, true patriot love in all thy sons command! SONS? Are they allowed to say that? What about the daughters? And NATIVE – isn’t that supposed to be First Nations now? Oh, they don’t mean that kind of native. They mean BORN IN CANADA. But then what about the new Canadians, if that’s still a permissible term, because in my opinion it drives a wedge between people. It’s like saying “them and us”, right? I suggest we use the term BIRTHPLACE-CHALLENGED. The word may not fit into any lyrics, but it satisfies all three prerequisites for being politically correct: ugly, unnatural, and 2 inches (5 centimetres) long.

But I see I'm a latecomer to the question of politically charged language. George Orwell said it all in his 1946 essay, Politics and English Language. These euphemisms were "designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable."

http://iis.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/Politics_%26_English_language.pdf)

More recently, Noah Richler wrote about the euphemisms of war in What We Talk About When We talk About War. Torture is now enhanced interrogation, and killing has become neutralizing. Some neutralizing is done by “friendly fire”. That’s so comforting. Can you imagine the horror of being neutralized by unkind fire?

And here’s (part of) a poem Linda Hutsell-Manning wrote, musing about global warming and the meaning of pansies.

Freefalling into Spring albeit with a Slight Diversion.

...Oxford concise says

one   a viola family plant 

two   informal   effeminate

or homosexual man but

why   here the defining point

pansy from pensée the

feminine noun use of

verb to think so there

it is French grammar

culprit of this dictionary

misanthropic phrase

but wait a minute

since pansies are resilient

tough why not demand

when powers that be

in word-filled rooms

assess which words in next editions be deleted

render this homophobic

obscure completely incorrect

colloquially cursed definition

obsolete  ps and fix the weather.