The state government in New York doesn’t seem to be able to do anything about the fact that you can’t walk down the streets in Manhattan without being shot or stabbed or the unaffordable rent prices driving people to move out. But that doesn’t mean that they aren’t getting things done! That seemed to be the message from New York Governor Kathy Hochul when she signed a new bill into law this week that would discontinue the use of the word “inmate” when referring to people doing time behind bars. Calling people “inmates” is apparently discriminatory and probably racist as it turns out. So what are we supposed to refer to prisoners as in the future? They will be known as “incarcerated individuals.” You really can’t make this stuff up. (Spectrum News)

New York’s law books will no longer use the word “inmate” to describe people in prison as part of a measure signed Monday by Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Use of the word “inmate” has come under criticism by advocates who have sought changes to New York’s criminal justice system, arguing the term dehumanizes people. Laws in New York will now refer to people in prison as “incarcerated individuals.”

The change also comes as New York has sharply reduced the number of people in state prisons over the last decade and many facilities have closed in the state prison system.

The woke language changes on display here didn’t end with that alteration to the state’s laws. The bill also expanded the hours during which people on parole can perform required community service to include evenings and weekends, outside of normal working hours. That’s nice enough, I suppose, but Hochul described it by saying that now we can “make our streets and communities safer by giving justice-involved individuals the chance to complete their rehabilitation program and work at the same time.”

So now, when you finish your time as an “incarcerated individual” you will have the chance to be a “justice-involved individual” while you work off your community service and check in with your parole officer. But “parole officer” sounds kind of racist too, doesn’t it? Maybe they need to be renamed as “abidance monitored individual officers.”

We’ve lost our collective minds. This is reminiscent of when Washington State told everyone to stop saying “marijuana” because that’s a racist word too. Of course, marijuana is only racist toward Mexicans and Hispanci people. “Inmate” is racist toward everyone.

George Orwell famously said that when you control language, you control the masses. Peter Kreeft was even more eloquent. He said, “Control language and you control thought; control thought and you control action; control action and you control the world.” Even the provocative author Erica Jong got this concept. She once wrote, “Language matters because whoever controls the words controls the conversation, because whoever controls the conversation controls its outcome, because whoever frames the debate has already won it, because telling the truth has become harder and harder to achieve in an America drowning in Orwellian Newspeak.”

You can see what’s happening here. This is the battle plan of the New Left in America and in many other countries. Force people to speak differently as a way to totally reframe the debate and enforce your will on the masses. Don’t let them get away with it. When they tell you what pronouns you are “supposed to use” or order you to drop existing, perfectly serviceable words and replace them with new ones… Do Not Comply.