Then they said unto him, "Say now Shibboleth," and he said "Sibboleth," and they took him and slew him.
— Judges 12:6
The Miami Herald last month called on progressives to stop using the word Latinx.
"Stop trying to make the term 'Latinx' a thing," the editors wrote. "The so-called 'Latinx community' doesn’t even want to be called Latinx."
It turns out 98% of Latinos don't like the word.
I don't care for it either.
It sounds like a brand of laxative. (I can see the tagline now: Latinx. Pity the stool.)
I don't care for shibboleths in general.
Shibboleths often begin life as genteelisms meant to foster goodwill; but they just as often devolve—quickly—into political passwords.
The word shibboleth (Hebrew for "corncob") comes to us from the Old Testament, where we're told that sentries in Gilead used shibboleth as a watchword, knowing their enemies couldn't pronounce the "h."
I pity the fool who couldn't say shibboleth. He was executed on the spot.
I remember recoiling in horror the first time I heard a speaker say Latinx—not because I had no toilet paper, but because I thought, "Oh, no, here's another angry group to worry about offending."
But enough already!
With the real threats to democracy posed by the right, it's time we speak plainly and candidly—without fear of causing offense.
All this precious progressive "rebranding" has gotten way-too Orwellian.
"Some people love to feel offended because it makes them feel important," novelist Oliver Markus Malloy said.
"When your only tool is a hammer, suddenly every problem starts to look like a nail. And when the only time you feel relevant is when you claim to be offended, suddenly everything looks offensive.”
He's right.
Let's be blunt and to the point.
Let's nix the shibboleths.
