The Trump administration has decreed that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cannot use seven words: diversity, fetus, transgender, vulnerable, entitlement, science-based, and evidence-based. http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/16/health/cdc-banned-words/index.html.
Poor fetuses. They've been around since time immemorial, and they're terribly vulnerable. The best protection the modern world can offer them is science-based medicine. There may be a diversity of views as to how best to take care of fetuses. But evidence-based science provides the most knowledgeable foundation on which to have a dialogue about these issues. Centuries ago, the Earth didn't flatten itself just because a lot of people thought it was flat.
Using the word "transgender" forces one to confront the fact that transgender people exist. If the term isn't used, it's easier to pretend they aren't there. And if you can pretend they aren't there, then you don't have to think about what entitlements they should have. If you are religious, you don't have to consider the possibility that they, too, are God's children. Toddlers believe that if they close their eyes and can't see what's before them, it isn't there. Apparently, the Trump administration has some serious growing up to do.
One wonders if the Trump administration is thinking that ignorance is strength, that ignorance is bliss. Censorship is a tool of fascism and totalitarianism. A free nation and a free people have no need to censor words. Here are seven words that the Trump administration needs think about: truth, knowledge, intelligence, freedom, thoughtfulness, decency, and compassion.
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