Wasn’t there something in Orwell’s 1984 about using control of the dictionary to control what people can think? Progressives seem to have a similar control over the media and they have now declared that the word “moderate” is doubleplusungood.

Progressives are imploring fellow Democrats to stop using the term “moderate” to describe some lawmakers in their party, arguing it inaccurately labels those holding up President Biden’s agenda as merely staking out a middle-ground approach…

“Referring to the small handful of conservative Democrats working to block the president’s agenda as ‘moderates’ does grave harm to the English language and unfairly maligns my colleagues who are actually moderate yet by and large understand the stakes of this historic moment,” first-term Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) told The Hill on Tuesday.

The article goes on to say that the exact replacement for “moderate” hasn’t been nailed down yet but the alternatives all sound like insults:

“I don’t consider these people moderates,” said progressive strategist Jonathan Tasini. “I consider them corporatist mouthpieces.”

Others like to say “right-wing Democrats,” in contrast to the “left-wing Democrats” descriptor commonly used for progressives in Congress.

Not surprisingly, this effort to rename the enemies of progressivism seems to have first sprouted at MSNBC where Medhi Hasan did a segment last month criticizing the media for using the term. “There is nothing moderate about opposing action on climate action when the planet is literally on fire,” Hasan explained. He continued, “There’s nothing moderate about opposing access to child care and health care in a country which, rare among industrialized countries, guarantees neither…There’s also nothing moderate about opposing common sense gun control legislation…”

You can watch the full clip below but I’m sure you get the idea. Progressives, it turns out, are the real moderates and anyone who opposes anything they want to do are right-wing extremists or corporatist mouthpieces. That’s how Medhi Hasan sees it and that’s how many progressives see it.

Progressives are trying to save President Biden’s Presidency and agenda. Let's retire the term "moderate" once and for all for Manchin and Sinema. I prefer obstructionist but you can call them Conservative Democrats.

— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) September 27, 2021

holy fucking shit, stop calling Manchin and Sinema 'moderates.' moderates don't side with nihilist chaos agents who want to halt progress, blow up the economy and destroy democracy

— Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) September 29, 2021

People who are indifferent as to whether huge swathes of the planet become uninhabitable probably shouldn't be called moderates

— Kate Aronoff (@KateAronoff) September 23, 2021

MANCHIN 👏🏾 AND 👏🏾 SINEMA 👏🏾 ARE 👏🏾 NOT 👏🏾 MODERATES

— Milk Chocolate MAKamala (@NovusDivus) September 29, 2021

Of course they are free to see it however they want. But they don’t have the right to demand that everyone else see it the same way. Now they are demanding that the media treat their views as normative and everyone else’s as extreme, that the media signal this by not labeling people to their right, even those within their own party, “moderates.” It sends the wrong message. It’s bad for the brand. And since most of the media are progressive themselves, they figure this is one way they can successfully work the refs.

Of course, calling Sen. Manchin an obstructionist isn’t about the dictionary, it’s about politics. Specifically, it’s demanding that the media help progressives punish Manchin for being out of step with his party. Medhi Hasan doesn’t care about accuracy, he cares about the left winning. That’s all this is about. Control the media to control what people think. How long will it take before this special pleading from leftists at MSNBC becomes the default position of the national media?