There was a time, not too long ago when words were generally agreed upon to have a hard definition. Those who are old enough will remember that there were companies whose entire business model was centered around collecting all of the words that people might want to use, printing them up in an alphabetized list along with that word part of speech and its definition, and then selling them to people so we could all have a common understanding of the meaning of all of the words. Wild, right?
But now we live in the age of 'post truth', when if we don't like the way a word sounds or what it implies about people we like we can just pretend that word doesn't exist and come up with something else that doesn't have the same connotations that we find... problematic. At the forefront of this effort, we find the New York Times, torturing the English language in an attempt to soften the news about Harvard President Claudine Gay and her apparent habit of liberally borrowing from or outright stealing chunks of other people's writing.
The NYT asked Harvard faculty:
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) December 21, 2023
“Few of those who saw the accusations as potentially serious were willing to speak on the record. But some who said they were troubled also noted that students were often punished, sometimes harshly, for similar infractions.” pic.twitter.com/UVOx0waszB
'Duplicative Language' is sure a weird way to say 'plagiarism', isn't it? Of course, it's unclear if the 'duplicative language' phrasing came from Harvard or if the New York Times came up with that one on their own, but really it's six of one, half dozen of another. If this was the language Harvard used the New York Times should have certainly known better than to parrot it. Had a Republican tried to obfuscate meaning in this manner no one believes the NYT would have gone along with it without question.
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'Duplicative language' - the gaslighting of the left never stops.
— canceledhooter (@canceledhooter) December 21, 2023
Duplicate Language!!!! Wow. Is plagiarism to hard of a word to spell for the No News Times. 🤦🤦🤦
— Eaglesueb (@Eaglesueb4) December 21, 2023
duplicative=plagarism
— DRBIDENinflation 𝕏𝕏𝕏𝕏 (@vjan09) December 21, 2023
That seems to be the case, yes. For a bunch of people that like to whinge on about the supposed totalitarian tendencies of Republicans the lefties over at the New York Times do seem to have a great fondness for taking their cues in journalistic ethics from the Ministry of Truth in Orwell's 1984.
"duplicative language" is the new doublespeak, code for plagiarism. https://t.co/21M1YvRCS3
— Adam Rubenstein (@RubensteinAdam) December 21, 2023
Plagiarism is too harsh a word for @nytimes.
— 𝓐𝓵𝓵𝓮𝓷 𝓡𝓪𝔂 (@2CynicAl65) December 21, 2023
Lol. https://t.co/J8BBIp2xrZ
"Duplicative language" and "incomplete citations" - this is what the media is saying about the plagiarism issue. If it were a student, they'd have severe consequences. Rules for thee but not for me! https://t.co/XFBs4FJsPN
— Ruth Peterson (@RuthAPeterson) December 21, 2023
Yes, normally when a student is caught doing these things they're held to account...
"Duplicative language". My PhD student had his degree delayed by a year because he reused a paragraph from his Masters introduction in his PhD introduction, including citing himself. UCT clearly FAR more rigorous than Harvard. https://t.co/hEdXdbG010
— AW (@welt_woman) December 21, 2023
But when it's faculty or administrators, the important people you know, it's just not worth enforcing or even calling by its commonly accepted name. Remarkable.
. @Harvard and the @nytimes provide data for an updated version of “Politics and the English Language.” https://t.co/hZFeHLAohV
— Sir Cease, Bundeskanzler der großen Stille (@ehutchinson1513) December 21, 2023
Now it’s The NY Times. Hilarious that they’d softened “plagiarism” to “duplicative language” https://t.co/FlrFFkCbkJ
— Nick (@CaptPeteRider) December 21, 2023
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) December 21, 2023
Hear that, parents and students? When you are accused of plagiarism, argue that it’s a case of “duplicative language.” Depending on your racial demographics and/or previously espoused political views….you’ll be fine!
— Adam Yankay (@ItsAMrY) December 21, 2023
And you wonder why parents are revolting against schools. https://t.co/81vyQWVDz2
It's a can't-miss idea!
Harvard is digging itself into a very deep hole in their efforts to defend Claudine Gay, and much of the traditional media seems to be intent on finding ways to dig itself into the hole with them. President Gay became a cultural flash point because of her horrendous testimony before the House of Representatives, sure, but we've moved beyond that now to questions regarding the way academia acts and how it polices itself, especially at the 'elite' Ivy League level. At a time when higher educational institutions have already seen public faith in them fall to historic lows according to some polling, it's hard to see how these institutions can possibly go on acting like this without tanking their reputation, and credibility, any further.
But by golly, they sure seem intent on finding out!
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