In the current environment of the politicization of medicine, the American Medical Association has decided to put out a "Guide to Language Narrative and Concepts: Advancing Health Equity" to all their members. Roughly 250,000 medical professionals.
If that headline sounds confusing and ultra-woke, then you're getting it.
This is a 54-page document put out to the entire AMA, outlining its push to address "marginalization and inequity due to sexism, class oppression, homophobia, xenophobia, and ableism." How are they going to address those things? By changing the language your health professionals use. It's basically Critical Race Theory within the walls of your doctor's office.
Nothing new to see here, tactically. It's a whole "1984" destruction and redefinition of words, which is part of the playbook we see so often. But here's how it's being utilized now, and how you, your doctors, and nurses are being told to speak:
Disadvantaged or under-served.
"Historically and intentionally excluded."
Equality
"Equity."
Fairness
"Social Justice."
Illegal immigrant
"Undocumented immigrant."
Minority
"Historically marginalized or minoritized BIPOC."
Sex/Gender
"Sex assigned at birth."
Slave
"Enslaved person."
When was the last time you and your doctor shot the breeze on slavery?
Yes, this is pulled directly from the AMA's new guide. Most of it having nothing to do with medicine, but a specific political agenda. It goes so far as to say that your doctor shouldn't casually use words like "white paper," or "blackmail." Suggesting, to "reconsider need for white/black adjectives."
This policing of language may start with things that don't get discussed often, but it always starts somewhere. For instance, using "sex" instead of "sex assigned at birth" may seem small, but if you're a doctor who doesn't agree with gender reassignment surgery, you now know that the AMA will be fighting your POV actively, unless you get in line with them.
This is not exclusive to the American Medical Association, but it's happening across many large American institutions. It's a form of worldview bullying, forcing their beliefs on their members. In a sense, a dominant worldview is always being taught, in some subtle way. The difference is, this worldview is not subtle. It's intentionally manipulating power to manipulate culture, and people. Good worldviews don't do that.
This one, in their own words, is to dismantle "hetero-," "able-bodied" and "Christian" ways of thinking.
And that's what's at the heart of this battle.
Ryan Wiggins is the author of the extremely serious and not funny robot novel, The Life of Human, and is a writer and producer of television shows. He is the host of Wiggins America on 97.1 FM Talk in St. Louis.