Arkansas Governor Nixes Latinx

From Tuesday's Executive Order to Respect the Latino Community by Eliminating Culturally Insensitive Words from Official Use in Government:

WHEREAS: Ethnically insensitive and pejorative language has no place in official government documents or government employee titles;

WHEREAS: The government has a responsibility to respect its citizens and use ethnically appropriate language, particularly when referring to ethnic minorities;

WHEREAS: According to Pew Research, only three percent of American Latinos and Hispanics use the word "Latinx" to describe themselves;

WHEREAS: The Real Academia Española, the Madrid-based institution which governs the Spanish language, has officially rejected the use of "x" as an alternative to "o" and "a" in Spanish;

WHEREAS: One can no more easily remove gender from Spanish and other romance languages than one can remove vowels and verbs from English; and

WHEREAS: It is the policy of the Governor's administration to prohibit the use of culturally insensitive words for official state government business.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, acting under the authority vested in me as the Governor of the State of Arkansas, do hereby order the following:

That all state offices, departments, and agencies, unless granted an exemption by the Governor, shall review official documents of their respective entities regarding the use of the term "Latinx," "latinx," "Latinxs," or "latinxs" in official state documents.

That all state offices, departments, and agencies shall submit a written report to the Governor detailing the findings of their review regarding the current use of the terms "Latinx," "latinx," "Latinxs," or "latinxs."

That within sixty (60) days of this Order, all state offices, departments, and agencies shall revise all existing written materials by replacing the terms "Latinx," "latinx," "Latinxs," or "latinxs" with "Hispanic," "Hispanics," "Latino," "Latinos," "Latina," or "Latinas." If the changes to the revised documents require promulgation under Arkansas law, then the requisite state office, department or agency shall promulgate the revised document in accordance with Arkansas law….

Note that there's no First Amendment problem here, since the Governor's order only affects state agencies' official documents; the government is allowed to control the content of government speech.

And a good thing Gov. Sanders is relying on the Real Academia Española, not the Fake Academia Española.

Comments

[bernard11]

Hard to know what's sillier, the term "Latinx" or a governor being worried about it.

[Mr. Bumble]

...or the classification of individuals with meaningless words.

[Dr. Ed 2]

bernard11, think 21st Amendment....

[ThanksForTheFish]

Bingo.

[Martinned]

Exactly. Classic case of "if only they could both lose". Americans should really stop telling people who speak other languages how to speak their languages, and Republicans should knock it off with this phony war on woke.

[kkoshkin]

Isn't a good way to "stop telling people who speak other languages how to speak their languages" to correct prior instances where a government document told people who speak other languages how to speak their languages?

It seems to me that the "Latinx" thing is not a culture war that the right has picked. The right's pushback is against an obviously silly tactic that would spread further in the absence of pushback.

[Martinned]

Yes, and if that was the motivation of Republicans that would be fine.

[BravoCharlieDelta]

Since when are you a mind reader?

[Kazinski]

State agencies are her business, and they make her look bad by using language that denigrates and confuses people using state services.

[Sarcastr0]

That's a generous reading of the justification offered above, which makes no such factual finding.

[Ed Grinberg]

Hard to know what’s sillier, the term “Latinx” or a governor being worried about it.

Would you say the same thing about government employees wearing their pants on their heads?

[ThanksForTheFish]

Yes.

[Randal]

Of course! If the Arkansas government suddenly banned head pants, it would be blatant virtue signaling, since no one's wearing pants on their heads anyway.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Absent an order like this one, they would HAVE TO if their boss told them to.

Do you KNOW there were no such edicts about Latinx?

[TwelveInchPianist]

"since no one’s wearing pants on their heads anyway."

Why bother, when you can look just as silly by using terms like Latinx.

[Don Nico]

I disagee Bernard. Latinx is a culturally insensitive word pushed by Anglos. That is BS and an insult to those with any heritage from South America.

[Randal]

Well then shame on Sanders for issuing this big, public proclamation where she won the term a million times more exposure than the rest of the Arkansas government combined.

If this were a real problem within the Arkansas government that she wanted to solve, which I have no evidence for but let's say it were, they've got editorial best practices and style guides. It didn't need a big production. This is pure posturing.

[Rossami]

Sanders made an announcement about a local government policy. From what I can tell, it was pretty routine. The amount of exposure it's getting is entirely driven by media staff who decide what stories to write and promote. Why are you trying to blame her because the media decided to put her press release at the top of the stack?

[Randal]

This is not routine. Governors do not typically issue executive orders about style guidelines. What the fuck.

[Dr. Ed 2]

"Hard to know what’s sillier, the term “Latinx” or a governor being worried about it"

What's not being understood here is that, absent the Governor doing this, every woke upper-middle level bureaucrat in the state government can order his/her/its department (and all the people working therein) to use it.

My guess is that some low-level state employee went to the Governor and asked her to stop it. So she did.

[David Nieporent]

My guess is that some low-level state employee went to the Governor and asked her to stop it. So she did.

My guess is that SHS does not talk to low-level state employees, and that in fact nobody in the state of Arkansas, other than possibly on a university campus, has ever used the term, and that SHS is simply jumping on a culture war issue to get some exposure on Fox News.

[Nige]

Is the term really that silly? A term for non-binary Latinos? I realise that in terms of the culture wars it's a red rag to a bull, hence this idiotic EO, but what about it requires anyone other than the people who use it about themselves to shrug and move on?

[Rossami]

Didn't bother to read the article, did you? The whole point is that the people do whom it refers do not use it about themselves and in fact think it is (mildly) offensive. It is a "non-binary" term that was imposed on them by people outside their own community.

It's still a tempest in a teapot but yes, the term really is that stupid.

[Dr. Ed 2]

"Real Academia Española"

We need an English version, stat.

[Martinned]

¿Who knew that Republicans were so keen to defer to Royal authority?

[Brett Bellmore]

"People" seems a workable alternative to "Latinx".

[Jerry B.]

Only if they tell you they identify as people. Furries, for example.

[OtisAH]

Curiously, the professor was not delighted to pass *this* along.

Still, two hours later inflation in Arkansas dropped 83%, no crimes were reported for 48hrs and counting, and homelessness was erased!

[Life of Brian]

If the new standard is that we shouldn't do anything if it doesn't immediately fix Something Big, we could immediately eliminate about 97.349% of all governmental services and employees. Hey now... coalition? We can call it the "Go Big or Go Home" party.

[Bob from Ohio]

"Curiously, the professor was not delighted to pass *this* along."

Nothing "Curious" about it. As pointed out to you, EV uses that formula to introduce guest bloggers.

Not sure why you are so butthurt about it but whatever.

[Ed Grinberg]

It confirms his belief that conservatives are evil!!!

[OtisAH]

No, dumbass, I don’t believe in “evil.” Saying you’re “evil” absolves you of the responsibility for the horrible and despicable things you believe and feel free to share with the world. You’re not “evil,” Grimberg. You’re a disgusting and truly awful human being. You and you alone are responsible for that.

[Sigivald]

What horrible and despicable things does he supposedly believe, exactly?

(And, er, nobody else seems to think that "evil" means "not culpable".

That's a pretty novel usage. Think of Arendt's use of the term, not some imaginary "evil means demon possessed or something, totally not responsible for their actions lulz" viewpoint or whatever the hell it is that led you to "evil means not morally responsible for their actions".

For almost everyone else, "evil" is what you call deliberately/knowingly doing Bad Things (to compress an entire doctoral thesis into a sentence), and "evil" people are, in fact, culpable and responsible for their choices.

Your use seems to think "evil" is some Fundamental Label overriding all choice, thus reducing them to automatons who cannot be blamed.

Normal usage might call that "criminal insanity", perhaps.)

[Don Nico]

Nothing curious at all. The discussions of political correctness and wokeness have been commonplace.
I, for one, who finds Latinx offensive, was happy to see at least one high official taking a stand for respecting heritage language

[John F. Carr]

"Governor"? Governor is a masculine noun steeped in gendered Latin tradition. Surely governess or governatrix. Or governx.

[ReaderY]

If you can find a vendatrix to sell you that one!

[Longtobefree]

Governor is the title of a political office.
Period.

[Martinned]

Then why use it for people after they've left that office?

[ThanksForTheFish]

Arrogance.

[Don Nico]

No, thanks, it is a long standing mark of respect, such as referring to BHO as President Obama.

[Longtobefree]

That's not how I refer to him - - - - - - -

[David Nieporent]

One I reject. Not because of lack of respect, but because it's a job, not a title. He is Barack Obama, Mr. Obama, or former president Obama, not President Obama.

(Obviously context matters; if I'm discussing something he did while he was president, I would use the title. And occasionally using the title adds clarity to a discussion; I would always prefer clarity.)

[Don Nico]

You can object and call him whatever you please. However the usage of former titles is commonplace.

[Rossami]

I concede that the practice is common. However, in my opinion it is a practice we all should stop. It smacks of the titles of nobility that we tried so hard to move away from.

I'm okay calling a retired doctor "Dr Smith" because that's a credential earned through education and training. It signifies that you are allowed to practice medicine and is true even before you're employed and after you're retired. Politicians deserve no such deference. You're not a governor before you're sworn into office and you're no longer a governor after you're out.

[Don Nico]

I am fine, if the best title one gets is "tovarish." Otherwise just the last name will do.

[Eric (the OC tanker)]

I was under the impression that a 'governor' is a device to prevent an ICE engine from over-revving. Just say'n.

[Brett Bellmore]

Shows how much you know. The get used on external combustion engines, too.

First used in steam engines.

[Bruce Hayden]

I always use a suffix of “ette” to indicate female. Except for doctors. My daughter has gotten me to use the more proper “Doctora” (after spending her Junior Year abroad in Spain) for her and her friends (her bridal party, a year ago had a DDS as matron of honor, along with a PHarmD, MD, and several PhDs as her attendants - all Doctoras). I also use the approved feminine, when appropriate, such as Congresswomen, instead of Congresscritteterettes or Congressgals.

Yes, she is a feminist, which is why I do it. But it is all in fun. She puts up with it. For Christmas this year, I gave her a mug that had “Miss” crossed off, “Ms” crossed off, “Mrs” crossed off, followed by “Doctor” at the bottom, for work, around a bunch of guys. Unfortunately, due to time, I had to ship straight to her, and couldn’t add the “a” to the end of “Doctor”.

[David Nieporent]

We got a new coffeemaker for Chanukah, and my daughter jokingly edited the packaging so that it said Mx. Coffee on it.

[Sarcastr0]

Language choice is a nuanced thing.

I personally think Latinx is silly. However, when I've heard someone use that terminology to refer to themselves, I'll follow that. If I hear someone use that terminology to refer to third parties, I won't.

Other terms, like undocumented immigrant, I'll pick up if anyone uses it, because I personally think it's less silly, though not something I'm going to take a stand on.

Note the GOP changing the Committee on Education and Labor tp the Committee on Education and Workforce. I think that's the same kind of nonsense, but they have the authority to define names so that's what I'll use in conversation.

All this goes to say that a blanket rule is as much virtue signaling nonsense as any individual's strained word choice.

[Brett Bellmore]

"Other terms, like undocumented immigrant, I’ll pick up if anyone uses it, because I personally think it’s less silly"

Actually, that IS pretty silly, unless you're talking about somebody who got their wallet lifted. Personally, I object to that terminology because it's deliberately intended to elide the group's defining characteristic.

[Sarcastr0]

You're welcome to your opinion!

[Bob from Ohio]

"I’ll pick up if anyone uses it,"

Yes, you use whatever woke term is trendy like the liberal herd animal you are.

[Sarcastr0]

Bob, did you see what I said about Latinx, and Committee on Education and Workforce? Or were you blinded by your knee jerking so hard?

[Bob from Ohio]

"did you see what I said about Latinx, and Committee on Education and Workforce"

Of course, the latter is not "woke" and I'm sure you used Latinx until you found out actual Latin heritage people hated it.

[Sarcastr0]

You can be sure if what you want, doesn’t make it true.

And doesn’t seem very sheep like to use anti work language either.

Making up stuff I do so you can call me a sheep is pretty lame.

[Life of Brian]

However, when I’ve heard someone use that terminology to refer to themselves, I’ll follow that.

How many times, roughly, have you been in a personal conversation with someone who chose to invoke a term that literally has a 1% adoption rate?

[Sarcastr0]

Lol I work with MSIs for the Federal government.

[Life of Brian]

First off, throwing around obscure TLAs makes you SO cool, dude.

Second, per the article I provided, only about 1% of the Ms themselves favor the term. And you claimed you only follow when people “use that terminology to refer to themselves” — not virtue-signaling bureaucrats falling over themselves to use it to refer to others they think should appreciate it.

So you haven’t moved the ball forward a bit. Which must mean it’s a day ending in Y.

[Sarcastr0]

Whatever dude. I've heard people use it to talk about themselves. Call me a liar based on your general statistics if you want, but that's on you.

[Life of Brian]

Call me a liar based on your general statistics if you want

You must have a pretty weird set of reading glasses that translate the words "How many times, roughly" into "LIAR!"

Given all the ducking and weaving, it sounds like you're trying to avoid saying "once, maybe" or similar.

If not, of course, you could just directly answer.

[Don Nico]

Poor you.
Two strikes to begin with.
Just pulling you leg.

[Nige]

A 1% adoption rate! MY GOD, EXECUTIVE ORDER THAT SHIT!

[Jonathan Affleck]

In Spanish one uses Latinos for men and for men and women. One uses Latinas only for women.

If one must be inclusive of male and of female in the singular, one can always use Latin American.

If one objects to the use of Latinos for men and women inclusively, one can use Latin Americans.

I personally see no reason to add the words Latino, Latina, Latinos, or Latinas to English except perhaps in the old newspaper publishing context because back then an editor always wanted to save ink and to print as short a headline as possible.

[Don Nico]

Thank you, Jonathan!

[David Nieporent]

Someone of Hispanic background born in the U.S. is not a "Latin American." They can be Latino/Latina or something else, but they aren't from Latin America.

[Don Nico]

But their heritage can be South American

[Nige]

Od, if you're a young Latino, you can come up with your own term and use that without expecting State Governors to attemot to suppress it.

[VinniUSMC]

Young Latinos didn't come up with Latinx. The Governor isn't suppressing Latino's use of Latinx. The Governor is suppressing the state government's use of a BS term made up by lefty dumbshit wipipo that think they know better. Like you. Fuck off lefty turd.

[bevis the lumberjack]

Dammit!! When are they going to do something about people who use "mx" instead of mr or ms or mrs or miss? Gotta do something to give special protection to the Latins while the majority of us out here are forced to continue to suffer.

[Sigivald]

People never seem to push "Mx" for talking about groups of people or suggesting that "Mx" is an "identity".

(I know people who use Mx themselves, note, and happily attempt to remember to use it, not that I use honorifics on my friends very much anyway.)

Yes, I know you were making a joke.

It'd work better if the things were comparable in any way, though.

(Mx also doesn't butcher a language in the same way; being mad at grammatical gender in a Romance language is tilting at windmills in a way wanting an un-gendered honorific for oneself is not.

In several ways, even.)

[bernard11]

How is "mx" pronounced? "Mix?"

That might be confusing if someone was named "flower."

"Hi. I'm Mix Flower."

"Mix it with what? Water? What are we making?"

[Life of Brian]

And now I suppose I'm supposed to think twice about saying I'm "putting something in the mix" in a brainstorming session. Seems like we lose more and more useful turns of phrase every day.

[Nige]

These terms seem to have their origins in internet chat rooms, where pronunciation wasn't really an issue, which is probably why they never really had much chance of catching on, though they've survivied a lot longer than most internet slang.

[Social Justice is neither]

Latinx is linguistic colonialism forced on brown people by a mostly white segment of academia. Progressive are nothing but projection.

[Heresolong]

Hopefully the author understands that the Spanish word "real" doesn't mean the opposite of fake.

[Longtobefree]

When you lose your sense of humor, you lose the joy of life.
Of course he knows, what do you think this is, the Reason comments?

[Eugene Volokh]

I tried to signal such understanding by providing a link to the translation of "Real Academia Española" in my little joke (a very little joke).

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Some of us understood it even without the link, and knew what the link represented.

Well done!

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

I found your joke Real funny!

[Absaroka]

"And a good thing Gov. Sanders in relying on the Real Academia Española, not the Fake Academia Española."

That was pretty good!

[Eugene Volokh]

Thanks, glad you liked it!

[Pro Se]

“Real” is the Spanish term for the word “royal”. The Royal Spanish Academy is headquartered in Madrid and associated with preservation of the Spanish language.

[Sigivald]

Wolfcastle.jpg.

"That's The Joke."

[Carl_N_Brown]

I had Latin and German in high school but I was aware the Spanish class textbook title was "El Camino Real" roughly "The Regal (or Royal) Road".

[bevis the lumberjack]

That was the same book I had. I still remember some of the lines in the conversaciones we hat to learn from that book.

Este es mi amigo Juan.
El gusto es mio.

And my personal favorite “yo tambien, Panchito”. I think this line was spoken by a girl because I remember us 14 year-old boys saying it in a high pitched voice to show how clever we were.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Yet another ill-informed, juvenile act by Republicans to “own the libs” and ignore a serious issue which liberals had proposed a solution for.

We no longer use “men” to refer to both men and women. Yet “Latino” means both male and female. I’d like to see those here who make fun of “Latinx” to explain why they would like to return to using “men”.

It’s funny to see Sanders resort to an institution in Spain, across the Atlantic. Arkansas Republicans know Latinx only as busboys and maids, so let me educate them. In the first place, Spanish culture is different from Latinx culture. It is in a sense a different world. In the second place, the Real Academia is notoriously stodgy. In the third place, one can easily guess what someone in Spain speaking “Castilian” (the posh version of Spanish) thinks of linguistic innovations.

In the third place, it is a rare misstep into immaturity for Eugene to make fun of the word “Real”. It shows how remote his world is from the world of Spanish speaking people.

[Martinned]

We no longer use “men” to refer to both men and women. Yet “Latino” means both male and female. I’d like to see those here who make fun of “Latinx” to explain why they would like to return to using “men”.

Or "we" could just not analogise from our own non-gendered language to other languages. Just a thought.

[Dan Schiavetta]

English was a gendered language until we fixed it, at least as to "men".

[Martinned]

That's not what "gendered language" means.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_type_of_grammatical_genders

[Don Nico]

crisis,
Try to learn something before you make an uninformed comment

[Absaroka]

"We no longer use “men” to refer to both men and women."

I'm not sure which "we" you are referring to, but I still hear policeman/fireman/mailman quite a bit more than I hear policeperson or policewoman or whatever. Even from police officers who happen to be female.

IMHE there are a few people who get really cranked up about the Terminology Wars, and many more people who are kind of bemused by it all.

[phoqueue]

I still hear policeman/fireman/mailman quite a bit more than I hear policeperson or policewoman or whatever.

I'd say "police officer" and "firefighter" have become so common that they pass unnoticed.

[DRM]

The silliest thing is that "mann" was usually neuter in Old English; if you meant adult male humans specifically, they were "wer". So the sensible thing was to push to revive "wer", rather than demand a rewrite of every single "X-person" compound in the whole English language.

[Kazinski]

Don’t tell other cultures their language is wrong, and you the White Savior need to fix it for them.

[bevis the lumberjack]

Ooh, look at captcrisis colonizing the Spanish language. How about we just let the speakers of a language figure out how the language should work? Latinx is made fun of because it's stupid and is rejected by the vast majority of native Spanish speakers.

And I doubt you know a single Arkansas republican, so your stereotyping of people you don't know shows your bias.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Actually I do. I used to live on the border with Missouri. I hung out with the guns-and-stars-and-bars crowd.

No one who actually knew a Latinx would think of consulting the Real Academia. It’s like having black Americans over for dinner and serving them up a recipe you looked up from Mozambique. They all look alike, right?

[Martinned]

Seriously. Stop digging.

[bevis the lumberjack]

Not my business. Nor yours. The native speakers can figure it out and they have rejected Latinx.

And Arkansas is almost 9% Hispanic. Most Arkansas Republicans probably know at least a couple of them. Maybe I misunderstood your biased stereotyping. You weren't insulting Arkansas Republicans, you were saying that people of Latin descent can only do maid and busboy work. You forgot to include lawn work in your bias. Do better next time.

[Brett Bellmore]

Heck, I know some Hispanics here in SC. Wasn't joking about just substituting "people", that's what they do.

[Sigivald]

"A latinx" being "an American Hispanic activist" in this context, I guess?

Yes, activists want to push their language preferences and don't care about Official Spanish - and I have some sympathy for that, because official language academies are ridiculous.

But equally actual Latinos don't seem to be embracing Latinx.

Like, AT ALL. Because it's solving a problem they don't have and don't care about, because they aren't academic gender activists.

[Nige]

Which is fine, but one wonders why something with such low adoption requires official supression.

[Milhouse]

Because it has a high adoption rate among bureaucrats.

[David Nieporent]

Somehow I doubt that, other than ones on college campuses.

[Don Nico]

"I used to live on the border with Missouri."
Povera tu.

[Brett Bellmore]

"We no longer use “men” to refer to both men and women."

"What you mean "we", paleface?"

[bevis the lumberjack]

The correct punch line is "what do you mean we, white man?"

[Jmaie]

I thought it was, “What you mean we, Kemosabe?“

[bevis the lumberjack]

I was told the as “white man”. Tonto’s way of making the point that he was more like the attackers than he was the Lone Ranger

[Absaroka]

I'm with Bevis - part of the joke is that Tonto is suddenly differentiating himself from the Lone Ranger. Yesterday it might have been 'Kemosabe', but right now it's 'white man'.

It's the same joke, more or less, as the guys running from the bear when one of them stops to put on his running shoes:

'What are you doing that for - you can't outrun the bear even in running shoes!'
'I don't have to outrun the bear'

In both cases, it's no longer 'all for one and one for all'.

[Jmaie]

I find it a bit odd that either of you think that needed explaining. I just meant that everyone I've heard tell the joke used "kimosabe" vs. "paleface."

[bevis the lumberjack]

I didn’t think it needed explanation because I didn’t create the joke. I heard the joke and the version I was told used “white man”. Personally I think that’s funnier than Kemosabe or pale face because it hints at the hostility that Tonto is going to demonstrate when his Native friends get there, but you like what you like and I like what I like.

[Bob from Ohio]

"liberals had proposed a solution for."

White liberals solving things for brown people!

What would people of Latin descent do without liberals!

[Jacob Grimes]

I have no idea if you are being serious or not. “Latinx culture” can’t be real, right?

[BravoCharlieDelta]

Well since you're White, you surely know whats best for all those brown people.

[Jason Cavanaugh]

1) It is not a “serious” issue.
2) You have no idea what you’re talking about regarding gendered language.
3) You have no education in the Spanish language.
4) You denigrate the history of the very language you seek to be the white savior of with your ridiculous ignorance.

[Don Nico]

"Yet another ill-informed, juvenile act by Republicans to “own the libs”
Yours is another ill-informed, juvenile comment meant as trolling in online culture wars.

[Nige]

Please, please tell my why this word, no matter what your opinion of it happens to be, requires an Executive Order if it isn't just culture war anti-woke posturing?

[David Nieporent]

Yet another ill-informed, juvenile act by Republicans to “own the libs” and ignore a serious issue which liberals had proposed a solution for.

It wasn't and isn't a serious issue, and nobody was asking for a solution to it. Latinos and Latinas were not asking for Latinx and don't use it themselves.

In the third place, it is a rare misstep into immaturity for Eugene to make fun of the word “Real”. It shows how remote his world is from the world of Spanish speaking people.

Q: How many liberals does it take to change a light bulb?
A: That's not funny.

[bevis the lumberjack]

John Cleese, is that you?

[David Nieporent]

I do agree with captcrisis to a limited extent, which is that it was patently silly to appeal to the purported authority of the Real Academia Española, which — contrary to SHS's claim — does not "govern[] the Spanish language."

[Bob from Ohio]

"The Royal Spanish Academy (Spanish: Real Academia Española, generally abbreviated as RAE) is Spain's official royal institution with a mission to ensure the stability of the Spanish language.

The RAE dedicates itself to language planning by applying linguistic prescription aimed at promoting linguistic unity within and between various territories, to ensure a common standard." wikipedia

Close enough to be paraphrased as "govern", You just don't like the governor so you nitpick.

[David Nieporent]

No, it's not. Even if you wanted to describe it as governing the language in Spain, Latin American countries each have their own language academies. The Royal Spanish Academy has no authority over Spanish spoken in other countries, and anyone who has studied Spanish knows that while it's all recognizable Spanish, there are significant distinctions between Castilian Spanish and, say, Argentinian or Mexican Spanish.

[Bob from Ohio]

You are using only the political definition of "govern", meaning rule or administer. She is using its broader, but still common, meaning.

govern
verb
3a: to control, direct, or strongly influence the actions and conduct of
b: to exert a determining or guiding influence in or over

"strongly influence" or "guiding influence" is what the RAE tries to do

[Sarcastr0]

I really don't think Latin America looks to Spain for much, including guidance on how to speak.

[PeteRR]

The central and south American countries still look up to Spain and see it as a place to be emulated. And the academy does represent official Spanish in Spain.

[Eugene Volokh]

I thought that the joke was pretending to be someone who didn't understand that "Real" was Spanish for "Royal"; to the extent it "made fun of" anyone or anything, it would be of people who would actually be confused by that. But, as with humor generally, different people may take things different ways.

[Nige]

That's two jokes killed stone dead in this comment section. RIP.

[Eric (the OC tanker)]

Here is a point to ponder. Let's just for s&g's follow the 'science' and just use the 3 major anthropological classifications for the species. That just might reduce the level of stoopid.

[Carl_N_Brown]

Go to Madrid and sell "Latinx" to the Real Academia Española.

[apedad]

Did she run this through Prof. Bernstein first?

[Krychek_2]

I think the real problem here is that Americans seem wholly incapable of doing things in moderation. We have gone from an era in which ethnic minorities were denigrated at every opportunity, to an era in which anything that any member of any minority might be offended by is not just entertained but adherence is made compulsory. It seems there is no middle ground.

Same with abortion, same with gun control. It's all or nothing.

What needs to happen is for moderates, which is probably most Americans, to find a way to push the left and right extremes off the cliff they insist on standing next to.

[Kazinski]

That's what moderates like me have been saying, but extremists like you won't listen.

[bevis the lumberjack]

What kazinski said. There are plenty of Americans who love to do things in moderation. You're usually not one of them. No offense intended.

[Krychek_2]

Kazinski, and Bevis, the problem is with your perception. You are both at the extreme right end of the spectrum. From where you stand, someone who is in the middle of the spectrum (which is where I usually am, not always) appears extremist, but that’s because of where you’re standing, and not because that’s where I actually am.

In most of the Western world, I'd have trouble getting elected to public office because I'm too conservative. Joe Biden as well.

[bevis the lumberjack]

If you think I’m extreme right your brain is broken.

[Krychek_2]

I suppose that "extreme" is open to interpretation, but I would bet most of the regulars here would peg you as right.

[bevis the lumberjack]

It's fair to say that I complain about the left more, but concluding that it means that I'm of the right is simplistic political thinking. If you're not with us you must be with them type stuff. The left is more active from a policy standpoint right now and I find their policies to be divisive and ruinous. Completely contrary to liberty. So I point that out.

The right is completely fucked up by Trump. I've expressed disdain for Trump and his cultists many times, but how many "Trump sucks" posts do you need to do before it gets tiresome? You hear me complaining about Biden more because he's in charge and actually has policies, as awful as they are.

If I'm hardcore anything it's libertarian. I'm always arguing in favor of a strict interpretation of the Bill of Rights for everyone. But if you went down issue by issue I'd be pretty close to 50/50 between the two sides, maybe a little more toward the left on social stuff and certainly more toward the right on economic/finance stuff.

[Randal]

I find [the left's] policies to be divisive and ruinous. Completely contrary to liberty.

This makes you a right winger. You get that, right? So does "hardcore libertarian," at least in the modern sense as epitomized by this blog.

Simply realizing that Trump is an asshole makes you smart, but not moderate.

[bevis the lumberjack]

Disagreeing with the extreme left does not make someone right wing anything. Don’t be ridiculous.

[Randal]

You never said extreme left. You said "the left" and "Biden's policies." Biden is not extreme left, that's more like Bernie and AOC. If you think Biden is extreme, that, again, makes you a right-winger.

[Social Justice is neither]

Don't you know how purity spirals work?

[Nige]

Neither Bernie nor AOC are particularly extreme, either.

[Randal]

Well, they're at least trying to be. They say "socialism" a lot.

[bevis the lumberjack]

Randall, of course it's the extreme left. The progressives. They're setting the policy pace for the Democrats, and their policies are horrible. Destructive and divisive.

The main reason I mostly just criticize Trump on the right is because that side has become a personality cult and I don't see many more policy positions from them. I don't like their reflexive "let's cut taxes" stuff because tax cuts without spending cuts is ruinous. Yet both of the last two Republican presidents have cut taxes and increased spending. They're all trying to be Reagan, but Reagan had the advantage of being able to cut tax rates from confiscatory levels. Those days are gone.

A year or so ago I did a couple of those online "what's your political label" thingys, and both of them pegged me as a very moderate liberal, which I was a little surprised to see. I would more have thought of myself as a very moderate conservative. Either way, I'm not keen on either party, particularly as they've become more and more extreme.

[Sarcastr0]

Biden is President, bevis. If you think he's a creature of the extreme left, that's because your perspective comes from uncritically accepting the far right narrative.

Which is what you do, because you're on the right.

Around here you seem more moderate, because you don't want to gun down Mexicans. But that's a very low bar.

[Krychek_2]

I'll take your word for it, though I would hope you would understand why I might have gotten the perception that you're right: Because as you acknowledge you complain more about the left. When you're complaining is mostly one-sided, the conclusion that's going to be drawn is that your sympathies are with the other side. And while Biden is in charge and actually has policies, Trump is gearing up for another run and just might get the nomination, so I think it's a bit naive to say there's no point to talking about him.

And "hardcore libertarian" puts you on the right because it mostly rules out using the government to fix problems. The libertarian position and the conservative position are frequently the same thing, though not always. Legalizing drugs would be an exception.

[bevis the lumberjack]

krychek, I'm not an anarchist. There is stuff the government should be doing, but telling us what kind of stoves and cars we can have or telling us who we can marry or trying to supress our rights (and both of the major parties are terrible with that) is not on the list of those things.

[Bob from Ohio]

"“hardcore libertarian” puts you on the right because it mostly rules out using the government to fix problems"

They are just cheap, i.e. they want low taxes so want low spending. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

“hardcore libertarian” puts you on the left because they support drug usage and every other vice imaginable, are pro-criminal and anti-police, pro-gay marriage.

Being cheap [and liking guns] does not make you a conservative

[Randal]

You're less reactionary than Kazinski, but not as moderate as you think you are. You're about in the center of the VC commentary, which makes you pretty far right. David N -- he's the moderate you should aspire to.

"Not racist" is the line between "bigot" and "extremist". It isn't where "moderate" starts.

[bevis the lumberjack]

Not racist is exactly where moderate sits.

Both extremes are racist, each in its own way.

[Randal]

Yet another thing that only a right-winger would say.

[bevis the lumberjack]

You're projecting yourself onto me.

You can put me in the wrong box all you want, I know where I am and what I think politically. And whether or not you think so really doesn't matter.

[Bob from Ohio]

"David N — he’s the moderate you should aspire to."

He's a hardcore libertarian, nothing "moderate" about them.

[Kazinski]

Well the point is few people see their positions as extreme, it’s the people who oppose them who are the extremists.

But I don’t try to be moderate, I try to be right.

For instance I think capitalism is vastly superior to socialism. I think socialism is as Hayek said “A Road to Serfdom”. Trying to find a middle ground between the two positions is just a little less wrong than to be a socialist.

I believe in freedom of speech, I'm not interested in a moderate position. And no I don't think a governor setting official standards for official communications is a free speech issue.

[Sarcastr0]

Another long and boring American tradition is seizing the title of moderate without really being one.

Kaz, you are not much of a moderate.

[Don Nico]

What is the point of an empty ad hominen.
You've already said what you think on this matter (which was a moderate opinion).

[Sarcastr0]

He's not moderate, even if he thinks he is; that's not ad hominem.

[Don Nico]

Of course it is. Otherwise answer the content, not characterize the person (ad hominem).

[Martinned]

Or, to put that another way, 400 years ago the English started shipping their religious nuts across the Atlantic, and now you have a whole country full of religious nuts, where some religious nuts aren't Christian religious nuts but ideological religious nuts.

[bevis the lumberjack]

Ooh, Martin - who looks down on people that stereotype - apparently has no sense of self awareness. You're a lot more like the people you don't like than you think you are.

And what about all those religious nuts south of the Rio Grande in countries that are much more religious than America with no historical connection to England? How can we denigrate them? I just know you have it in you.

[Bob from Ohio]

he's just mad that all the best Europeans came here, leaving the dregs like him over there.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

all the best Europeans came here

Surely Bob can't mean "here" is Knuckle Drag, Ohio -- the uneducated, parasitic, bigoted, conservative, obsolete, worthless part of Ohio.

Even Bob -- whose station in life, as an adult, is to proofread $23,300 residential deeds in backwater Ohio -- could not believe his community attracted the best of anything. Bob's town couldn't even attract a first-rate traveling faith healer for a two-night stand.

[Frank Drackman]

Rev.olting comment from the Rev.olting Rev. Jerry L Arthur Sandusky-Huckabee-Kirtland

[Don Nico]

Bob,
That is as stupid a claim as you have ever made

[Don Nico]

Martin,
The English starting the nuts all around the globe. You'd enjoy a good historical read, "Empire," by Nial Ferguson

[Longtobefree]

Well, both abortion and gun control are binary.
Either you are dead or you are alive.
Either you have constitutional protection for your natural rights, or you don't.

[Krychek_2]

Not everyone agrees with your phrasing or presuppositions.

[Ed Grinberg]

http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/identity.html

[Krychek_2]

Ayn Rand was famous for defining things in ways that nobody else defined them, and then claiming to win arguments by using her definitions that no one else used. If I define "reasonable viewpoint" as "my position on any given issue," I can then claim to win the argument. Doesn't mean I actually did.

[Life of Brian]

Ayn Rand was famous for defining things in ways that nobody else defined them, and then claiming to win arguments by using her definitions that no one else used.

Wow, I had no idea she had so many diehard followers around here!

[CJColucci]

I have no skin in the LatinX game. When talking about the kind of people the term is supposed to encompass, which I rarely have any occasion to do in their absence, I tend to fall naturally into using whatever the particular folks of that description in front of me use. And when they’re not around, I tend to use what I last used when they were around. If the term catches on among the people it is supposed to describe, fine; if not, also fine.

But whatever anyone thinks about “LatinX,” what does it say that one of the first official acts of an incoming governor is to weigh in on it and impose a rule? Doesn’t Hucksterbee Sanders have important things to do?

[Longtobefree]

As the proclamation clearly states, she is only addressing official state documents, and not the population at large.
And removing insult to her citizens is an important thing to do.

[Ed Grinberg]

oops, wrong place

[David Nieporent]

Latinx is stupid, but it is not an "insult."

[Life of Brian]

Sure it is: an insult to our collective intelligence.

[Carl_N_Brown]

"Latinx" is a word made up by Anglo progressives, to be imposed on everyone, including Latinas and Latinos who did not ask for it.

[Sarcastr0]

I think the important thing is for you to speak for other groups of people about who they do and don't want speaking for them.

[Don Nico]

Yup, and they don't want Anglos making up their self descriptors

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Latinx is stupid

Dumber than an adult who claims to believe that fairy tales are true stories?

[Jacob Grimes]

Does she have more important things to do? Sure, but this proclamation probably took a few hours to write, at most, by a staffer.
It also sends a signal that the governor is going to be hostile towards anything perceived as woke nonsense.

[Don Nico]

CJC,
LantinX is even more offensive than Latinx.

[CJColucci]

LantinX? I thought you might be calling me out on a Muphry's Law violation, so I double-checked. I didn't use "LantinX" and I didn't see anyone else use "LantinX" either.

[Don Nico]

No you did not. You used LatinX and that is more offensive than Latinx

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

STATES RANKED BY EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT
(including territories; 52 jurisdictions ranked)

HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA
Arkansas 42

UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE
Arkansas 50

ADVANCED DEGREE
Arkansas 50

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how a Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders happens.

She is a graduate of Ouachita Baptist, by the way. Think about that: Her father is governor of a state (Arkansas, but still a state) with all of the associated resources, advantages, and opportunities -- and this one chooses to attend Ouachita Baptist.

Arkansas -- where intelligence, education, modernity, and decency go to die.

(No wonder Prof. Volokh couldn't muster a critical word here. Clingers gonna cling. Partisans gonna hack.)

[Krychek_2]

Arthur, never having heard of Ouachita Baptist, I just looked it up. You'll be happy to know they offer an on-line degree in Biblical studies. If you get bored in retirement, you might keep them in mind.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Hard to believe that educated, mainstream, liberal-libertarian Americans appease the Huckabees of the world by providing accreditation to nonsense-teaching, conservative-controlled, low-grade yahoo factories such as Ouachita Baptist, is it not?

[Frank Drackman]

Give them a break, they forgive Convicted Sex Offenders.

[subpatre]

[subpatre]

"States ranked by educational attainment
High School Diploma, Undergraduate Degree, Advanced Degree"

Lot of credentials with no measure of attainment . . . . like literacy:
NH 94.2% very highest in the nation
AR 86.3% ☚ who Reverse Kirkland chooses to mock
NJ 83.1% 5th most degreed (BA/BS or higher) 5th lowest literacy
NY 77.9% 2nd lowest in the nation
CA 76.9% very lowest in the nation

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

I gather your "literacy" standard ignores proficiency in foreign languages.

Which is how any white supremacist or white Christian nationalist would see it.

Carry on, bigoted clingers. So far as your betters permit. Not a step beyond. Then, replacement.

[Ed Grinberg]

According to Pew Research, only three percent of American Latinos and Hispanics use the word "Latinx" to describe themselves

Yeah, my wife, who's from Argentina, thinks it's the stupidest thing ever.

[Frank Drackman]

Has an Austin Powers sound to it, "She Breeds like a Latinx!!"

[Reallynotbob]

Real = royal in Spanish.

But yeah, let's celebrate Sarah Huckabee Sanders' inauthentic concern for cultural sensitivity with a clumsy cross-cultural "pun."

[Don Nico]

Buddy,
What is your hard evidence that Gov Sanders' concern is inauthentic. It seems what is inauthentic is your mini-rant

[Jason Cavanaugh]

Latinx is an insult to the Spanish language, but don't pretend that lying piece of shit cares one way or the other.

Her reputation was earned being the mouthpiece for Trump and lying to the country to earn her salary.

[bevis the lumberjack]

So then she was a typical White House Press Secretary, non of whom have ever been honest for two sentences in a row.

[Don Nico]

Yup, that is in the job description

[David Nieporent]

What is your hard evidence that Gov Sanders’ concern is inauthentic.

1) She's a politician.
2) She was willing to serve as Donald Trump's press secretary.
3) She's addressing a problem that doesn't exist. Nobody can be sincerely concerned about imaginary things.

[Don Nico]

In other words, Councilor, you have NO evidence

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

In other words, Councilor,

Speaking of needing another word . . .

[David Nieporent]

Those are indeed other words. I cited three pieces of evidence. Circumstantial rather than direct, but of course we can almost always only have circumstantial evidence of someone's motives.

[Don Nico]

The circumstances don't even have >505 correlation with the claim that you are trying to make. Also, compute the joint probability of you "evidence and you will see that you have proved nothing.

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

"NOW, THEREFORE, I, SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, acting under the authority vested in me as the Governor of the State of Arkansas..."

Wow! I'd completely forgotten that happened. Beautiful!

[Kazinski]

Kind of hard not to see that coming, her daddy was the most popular governor of Arkansas since Clinton, and she didn't hurt her prospects with her own career.

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

Which career was that? Her embarrassingly inept and dishonest tenure as White House Press Secretary?

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Here is some censorship the faux libertarian, bigot-hugging hypocrites at the Volokh Conspiracy can get behind!

(This is what passes for "cultural sensitivity" in the Arkansas-Volokh-Ouachita Baptist world. I suppose we should be grateful the author managed to navigate this entire post without using a single vile racial slur.)

Carry on, clingers. So far as your betters permit, and not a step beyond.

[Frank Drackman]

Some would say "Klingers" is a vile racial slur, Rev(olting) Rev. Jerry Sandusky-Sanders-Kirtlan. Pretty sure Barry Hussein O (you know he's got the "Help" turning his Martha's Vinyard mansion upside down looking for those Top Secret Ben-Ghazzi reports) wasn't talking about Afro-Amuricans when he talked about Bitter Klingers in PA and West Virginny. And where do you think that frozen chicken you eat in the Joint comes from?? it ain't from Vermont.

Frank "