Does anyone recall the intentionally slick moniker “Uncle Joe” for Josef Stalin, perhaps the greatest mass murderer in world history? This linguistic sleight of hand emerged in the 1930s. It was a time when the Gulags were being built, when the Ukrainians were being starved by the millions, when Duranty was sending his lies back to the New York Times, and when the imbecilic Abraham Lincoln Brigades were gearing up to defend world communism in Spain.
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Today’s Democrats are no less masters of language manipulation. Think here of “mostly peaceful protests” or “women’s health clinics.” Whoever was the German author of “Arbeit Macht Frei” would stand and applaud. Remember, readers—that author was a National socialist.
Which brings me back to “Bernie.” Here we have the abrasive, klutzy uncle motif run to its finest. “Bernie” conjures up a folksy kibitzer whom one can’t help but smile at, instead of the first wave of a national movement that is morphing into the exceedingly creepy likes of Hasan Piker, Zohran Mamdani, and El-Sayed.
And while we are on the topic of names meant to convey something quite different from the actual person, treat AOC the same way. That convenient nickname—“AOC”—helps her sell herself as the new Evita, a star. It recalls JFK, RFK, FDR, etc. It was all planned by very slick leftist marketers.
Call her Ocasio-Cortez. Everywhere, every time. She would have us believe she came up from the depths of poverty. She did not. Not even close. But she will send you and your kids there if you are middle class.
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So, I exhort AT readers and conservatives generally to stop it with the “Bernie” and the “AOC” façades. Otherwise, you are doing the bidding of the DNC (or DSA) elites.
Instead, let us at least call this Trojan Horse “Sanders,” just as Uncle Joe came to be called simply Stalin once we came to realize—rather late—the ruthless murderer he was. And Ocasio-Cortez sounds much better for the real Alexandria, more fitting with the beret-and-ammunition-belt motif of her communist guerrilla reality.
It seems like a small thing. It isn’t. I hope this can resonate through conservative media, podcasting, and everyday conversation. There is nothing “folksy and affable” or “hip” about a person who is helping to forge the chains that our children and grandchildren will wear.
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