Don't look now, but even the grammar police have gone woke. Microsoft Office now includes editing not just for spelling, punctuation and phrasing, but for "inclusiveness." The setting replaces "non-inclusive" terms like "mankind" or "illegal immigrant" with terms like "humankind" or "undocumented immigrant."
Francisco Gonzalez, commentator, immigrant, and self-described conservative diversity expert, doesn't buy into this. "It's lip service," he tells KTRH. "It makes people feel good to think that in some way they helped immigrants by changing the term...well, you don't help immigrants by using a proper term."
Users do have the option of turning off the inclusiveness setting, but why is it there to begin with? Microsoft says the software is aimed at eliminating terms that promote gender or sexual bias, or ethnic slurs. But it goes further than that into the downright ridiculous. The word "manhole" is even flagged, with the suggested replacement terms "utility access hole" or "maintenance hole."
Beyond the silliness, Gonzalez warns this is a dangerous attempt to change and replace language and culture. "They are attempting to wash away our traditions---language, culture, religion---and those things that we hold near and dear to our hearts," he says. "So we're going to have to stand up and be very vocal against this ideological colonization that's taking place."
This is yet another example of Big Tech going woke, whether it's Google manipulating searches and translations, or Twitter suppressing the Hunter Biden story. Still, Gonzalez believes there is new hope to reverse this trend. "I think what Elon Musk is doing with free speech on Twitter is absolutely admirable," he says. "I also think it says a lot that it took an immigrant to be the one to step up and do that here in America."
Photo: (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)