1 00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:05,100 How indignant can progressives make themselves? There’s a real competition going on. 2 00:00:05,100 --> 00:00:10,540 And it’s sweeping the nation: progressive vs. progressive competing to see who can most 3 00:00:10,549 --> 00:00:16,209 flamboyantly claim to be offended; to proclaim that their feelings have been hurt; 4 00:00:16,209 --> 00:00:21,840 or that their sensitivities have been rubbed raw; or their serenity disturbed; or their composure 5 00:00:21,850 --> 00:00:27,970 discombobulated, by something that someone has said. Or by something they have seen. 6 00:00:27,970 --> 00:00:33,620 Such as a Confederate flag or a building named after Woodrow Wilson. 7 00:00:33,620 --> 00:00:39,940 But, actually, I think progressives are not sufficiently imaginative. There are many more 8 00:00:39,949 --> 00:00:45,889 things they could be indignant about. Starting with where I live — Washington, D.C. 9 00:00:45,889 --> 00:00:50,960 The Washington Post newspaper is -- if it will pardon the expression -- on the warpath 10 00:00:50,969 --> 00:00:56,699 against the name of the Washington Redskins football team. The paper says the name is 11 00:00:56,699 --> 00:01:03,079 racist, insulting, demeaning, insensitive, and so on. But the Washington Post takes its 12 00:01:03,079 --> 00:01:08,960 name from its city…which is named for George Washington, who was not only a slave owner; 13 00:01:08,960 --> 00:01:14,720 he was a tobacco farmer, which some progressives probably think is almost as awful. 14 00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:20,380 Surely the Post should change its name -- and should demand that the nation's capital be renamed. 15 00:01:20,380 --> 00:01:26,380 Perhaps as Eleanor Roosevelt City. Obviously it cannot be named for her husband 16 00:01:26,380 --> 00:01:32,360 -- he who ordered the internment in concentration camps of 117,000 persons of Japanese descent, 17 00:01:32,360 --> 00:01:36,720 two-thirds of whom were native-born American citizens. 18 00:01:36,720 --> 00:01:42,090 And there are hundreds of other towns, counties, parks, and schools named for Washington. 19 00:01:42,100 --> 00:01:48,860 Such as Washington and Lee University. Good grief: The name is double hate speech: 20 00:01:48,860 --> 00:01:52,560 Robert E. Lee actually commanded the Confederate Army. 21 00:01:52,560 --> 00:01:57,280 Washington is not the only name progressives should scrutinize. The word "Oklahoma" is 22 00:01:57,280 --> 00:02:04,579 a compound of two words from the Choctaw language — words meaning "red" and "people." If it is intolerable 23 00:02:04,579 --> 00:02:09,179 to have a football team named "Redskins," it must be worse to have a state named 24 00:02:09,180 --> 00:02:15,500 "Red People.” But let's get back to cleansing America of all mentions of historic figures 25 00:02:15,510 --> 00:02:17,990 who were less than perfect progressives. 26 00:02:17,990 --> 00:02:23,490 On the Tidal Basin in Washington there is a memorial for the slave-owning Thomas Jefferson. 27 00:02:23,490 --> 00:02:28,100 This memorial should have a "trigger warning" carved into its marble. 28 00:02:28,100 --> 00:02:33,060 Jacksonville, Florida, and Jackson, Mississippi, and many other places and things, are named 29 00:02:33,069 --> 00:02:39,420 for Andrew Jackson, the tormentor of Native Americans. All must be renamed for someone 30 00:02:39,420 --> 00:02:43,080 who was saintly, as progressives understand saintliness. 31 00:02:43,080 --> 00:02:45,200 And speaking of saints: 32 00:02:45,200 --> 00:02:50,280 Surely good progressives are traumatized by the names of St. Louis, St. Petersburg, 33 00:02:50,280 --> 00:02:55,080 San Diego, San Antonio — not to mention Corpus Christie. 34 00:02:55,080 --> 00:02:59,659 Progressives like it when courts rule that non-denominational prayers at high school 35 00:02:59,659 --> 00:03:05,680 graduations violate the separation of church and state. Why, then, don't they consider 36 00:03:05,680 --> 00:03:11,610 it a constitutional outrage that there are cities named for religious figures? Including 37 00:03:11,610 --> 00:03:18,650 Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco. That city is — if progressives will pardon the expression — 38 00:03:18,650 --> 00:03:22,330 the Vatican of American progressivism. 39 00:03:22,330 --> 00:03:28,459 Progressives should demand that all such cities be renamed for progressive saints. Tony Bennett 40 00:03:28,459 --> 00:03:35,470 could sing, "I left my heart in Nancy Pelosi City." Or we could give these places names 41 00:03:35,470 --> 00:03:39,010 that give no offense because they have no meaning. 42 00:03:39,010 --> 00:03:45,260 Joseph Knippenberg is an American rarity — a sensible professor. His droll suggestion is 43 00:03:45,260 --> 00:03:50,099 that we spare progressives from discomfort by giving cities and buildings the kind of 44 00:03:50,099 --> 00:03:57,999 meaningless names that are given to car models — names such as Acura and Elantra and Sentra. 45 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:04,780 And what about the state flag of hyper-progressive Massachusetts? Its flag depicts a Native American 46 00:04:04,780 --> 00:04:11,840 holding — brace yourself — a bow and arrow. A weapon. Surely progressivism's sensitivity 47 00:04:11,840 --> 00:04:18,259 police cannot permit this depiction. It reinforces the hurtful stereotype of Native Americans 48 00:04:18,259 --> 00:04:22,139 as less than perfectly peaceful people. 49 00:04:22,140 --> 00:04:29,140 Minnesota, too, should hang its head in shame. Its state seal depicts a pioneer tilling a field, 50 00:04:29,140 --> 00:04:35,060 and a Native American riding away -- and carrying a spear. Any progressive can see 51 00:04:35,060 --> 00:04:42,490 that this seal conveys multiple racial slurs. The spear — another weapon, another stereotype 52 00:04:42,490 --> 00:04:49,000 of Native Americans as violent. The Native American, riding away, is stigmatized as nomadic, 53 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:56,400 hence unproductive. Whereas the farmer, who is white, is industrious. So, the seal communicates 54 00:04:56,400 --> 00:05:02,319 subliminal slander — the coded message of white superiority. Who knew that Minnesotans, 55 00:05:02,319 --> 00:05:10,459 who have voted Democratic in ten consecutive elections since 1972, embrace white supremacy? 56 00:05:10,460 --> 00:05:16,540 I could go on, but you get the picture. Still, you should feel sorry for the progressive 57 00:05:16,540 --> 00:05:24,760 sensitivity enforcers. Those who constantly find reason to take offense are rarely happy people. 58 00:05:24,760 --> 00:05:31,140 The problem, however, is that such people make almost everyone else miserable, too. 59 00:05:31,140 --> 00:05:34,780 I’m George Will for Prager University.