The
European Union’s Commissioner for Equality, Helena Dalli, recently issued a
memo on inclusive communication. The guide sought to “reflect diversity” and
combat “stereotypes deeply rooted in individual and collective behaviour.”
The
report was full of shit, which is to say the usual dreck about the necessity of
replacing “Ladies and gentlemen” with “Dear colleagues,” and the perils of
assuming anyone’s gender. It even noted that instead of potentially referring
to the “colonization of Mars,” we should say “sending humans to Mars.” Okay.
Quite.
But
that’s not all. The EU’s Equality Czar issued this timely direction: all
references to Christmas should be avoided, since referring to elements of
Christian culture is tantamount to “assuming that everyone
is Christian.” The generic term “holiday” is to be employed instead. The memo even
inferred that Christian names such as Mary and John were problematic and
borderline offensive.
What about names like Muhammed,
Ahmad, Basheer, or Hassan? No problem? Thought so. Which is why they will soon
outnumber Mary and John in much of Europe. But don’t worry, nothing else will
change. For the worse, anyway. Right?
Referring to elements of
Christian culture is tantamount to “assuming that everyone
is Christian?” Like referring to elements of Muslim culture is the same as
assuming that everyone is Muslim? Like referring to water is tantamount to
assuming that everyone can swim? Preposterous.
Fortunately, the
Commissioner of the EU, Ursula von der Leyen, withdrew the guidelines after
multiple complaints, stating: “It is not a mature document and does not meet to
our quality standards. So I withdraw it and we will work on this document
again.”
Great. Can’t wait to see what the next one proposes. Perhaps
a moratorium on the word “Jewish” and/or a ban on names such as Simon and
Matthew?
Onward, non-Christian soldier! Progress!
No comments:
Post a Comment