Fox & Friends guest: Microsoft Word's inclusive language options are a “mechanism of mind control”
Co-host Brian Kilmeade: “Political correctness has now got into our keyboard, into our computer, into our phone. Scary.”
Published
Citation From the January 14, 2022, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): Well, we've been talking about this today. Microsoft Word has added a new inclusiveness feature that highlights phrases that might offend someone based on gender, in their mind. Age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, goes down the list. Here to react, biotech entrepreneur and Woke, Inc. author Vivek Ramaswamy. Vivek, welcome back. I can't believe there's 250 million Microsoft users and now they're gonna be corrected if they're not using politically correct terms.
VIVEK RAMASWAMY: Well, George Orwell said it well, Brian. The way to first control a society is to control its language, and he was right. And the thing is, Microsoft is one of those companies that actually hasn't been in the limelight on the social controversies, on the woke orthodoxy, they've kept it behind the scenes. But now they're effectively using the same tools that they used to correct for grammatical errors or spelling mistakes. It's literally the same tools that now pop up to correct for political correctness. And I am sorry, Neil Armstrong's famous quote said “one giant leap for mankind," he didn't say humankind. It might have been perfectly fine if he did. But according to these reports, now they're actually going to suggest an autocorrect for using Neil Armstrong's famous quote to be able to say humankind, something he didn't say, rather than mankind. I think that's a trivial example, but I think it reveals the agenda that's at work here.
KILMEADE: Let's just expand it for people who are hearing this story for the first time. Here's some of the switches we can expect to see. “Mail carrier" or “postal worker" instead of “postman." “Mankind" you just mentioned is now “humankind." “Humanity" -- or we can use too, that's nice of them. “Showgirl" is no longer good. Now we'll say “dancer," “performer" or “performing artist." What a relief. Instead of “mistress," this will be great, we'll have “lover." Wow, I feel better already. Instead of “manpower," “workforce." Instead of “heroine," “hero." Some of these just absolutely ridiculous, but political correctness has now got into our keyboard, into our computer, into our phone. Scary.
RAMASWAMY: This is a mechanism of mind control, and look, am I really bothered or staying up out of bed at night because of any one of those examples? Of course not. But it's another example of the power that these tech titans have to control the entire mind of a society, and I think the fact that they're using it to advance this political agenda is something that we got to see through. Now, Brian, you've frequently heard from people over the last couple of years, “Great, if you don't like the product stop using it." Well I think that hasn't actually been realistic when you have network effects to the products, but at some point that dam is going to break, and you're actually going to see somebody take them up on that offer and create new high quality products in response. We haven't seen that yet. But I think it's going to happen in the next couple of years.