Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Old and busted? ‘Islamophobia’. New hotness? ‘Islamo-nausea’


Kathy Shaidle

Before he became the billionaire creator of The Simpsons with the unpronounceable name, Matt Groening drew the alt-strip “Life in Hell”. The annual highlight was the “Forbidden Words” strip, when Groening listed, with uncanny accuracy, the words we were all sick of hearing and reading after 12 months of lexical torture.

You know what I mean: “no brainer,” “impactful,” “croissandwich.”

Now, people like us have been rolling our eyes over “Islamophobia” since probably December 2001. As you may (I hope) have noticed about all things “politically correct”, eye rolling just doesn’t cut it in terms of rendering any phrase extinct. We have to come up with our own, alternative word and stubbornly use it until it catches on. (You’ll notice that “politically incorrect” made Groening’s list in 1998.) As 2010 lurches to an end, I propose we adopt my coinage: “Islamo-nausea.”

Because, come on: none of us is as “fearful” of Islam at this point, as we are just plain sick of it.

At this point, life is imitating Monty Python and rendering satire impossible.

The “Spanish” kid who was “insulted” because his teacher said the word “ham”?

Muslims taking Mark Steyn to court (and costing his publisher about $2-million in legal fees) because they didn’t care for his “tone”?

The UK’s top rated (and, not coincidentally, most politically incorrect) TV show is in trouble because the male hosts dressed in burkas?

To update the cynical old saying about outrage and paranoia: If you’re not sick of Islam by now, you aren’t paying attention.

We can mainstream “Islamo-nausea” if we all insist on saying it constantly, useless Human Resources tools be damned.

Who’s with me?

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