The words these progressives use to convey their contempt for their neighbors are actually secondary.

It says something about modern American political culture that the constitutionally nonconfrontational think tank Third Way, an organization that “champions moderate policy and political ideas,” made more news for itself than it has in years when it finally picked a fight.

In a memo that has captured the attention of the national press, Third Way attempted to police the Democratic Party’s language policers, even if its authors applied a gentle touch when doing so.

“In reality, most Democrats do not run or govern on wildly out-of-touch social positions,” the memo read. “But voters would be excused to believe we do because of the words that come out of our mouths—words which sound like we are hiding behind unfamiliar phrases to mask extreme intent.”

What follows is the hilariously long, but by no means exhaustive, list of words, phrases, and expressions that expose their users as cloistered ideologues consumed with hostility for the median American voter:

Privilege

Violence (as in “environmental violence”)

Dialoguing

Othering

Triggering

Microaggression/assault/invalidation

Progressive stack

Centering

Safe space

Holding space

Body shaming

Subverting norms

Systems of oppression

Critical theory

Cultural appropriation

Postmodernism

Overton Window

Heuristic

Existential threat to [climate, the planet, democracy, the economy]

Radical transparency

Small ‘d’ democracy

Barriers to participation

Stakeholders

The unhoused

Food insecurity

Housing insecurity

Person who immigrated

Birthing person/inseminated person

Pregnant people

Chest feeding

Cisgender

Deadnaming

Heteronormative

Patriarchy

LGBTQIA+

Latinx

BIPOC

Allyship

Intersectionality

Minoritized communities

Justice-involved

Carceration

Incarcerated people

Involuntary confinement

Of course, some of this language is revealing only of the user’s extensive vocabulary. No one should recoil at the use of the word “heuristic,” for example, as a way to describe a Socratic process or simple trial and error. The problem is not with the whole brevity thing, but, rather, the (possibly defensible) assumption that its use is an exercise in condescension. It often depends on the context.

That said, the vast majority of this jargon is indefensible. It sounds like nails on a chalkboard to the average ear, and it is deliberately exclusionary. The ever-shifting linguistic landscape is navigable only to those who are inside or in proximity to the highest echelons of the academy. That’s the whole point of this enterprise; these linguistic flourishes represent barriers to entry into respectable discourse. It is a credential for those whose actual credentials are providing a rapidly depreciating return on capital investment. Why else do you think the last educational cohort that reliably votes Democratic is Americans with postgraduate degrees?

And yet, if the Democratic Party really did attempt to enforce Third Way’s recommendations, it could very well backfire. As the memo notes, instead of these terms (and many other buzzwords that serve only to advertise the user’s membership in the progressive tribe), Democratic office seekers should use “plain, authentic language,” even at the risk of irritating “activists and advocacy organizations.” This assumes the existence of a distinction between Democratic aspirants for high office and the activist class. Really, if they’re not one and the same, there is usually significant overlap at the staff level.

Moreover, while these words do convey inauthenticity, they are so thoroughly internalized by their users that forcing them to fish for more earthy verbiage is far more likely to come across as insincere. Watching the average “critical queer studies” major’s gears turn as he queries his memory banks for a monosyllabic way to accuse the United States of omnidirectional bigotry will be just as painful as letting him roll with the jargon drilled into him in that freshman seminar.

In short, it’s not the language that’s the problem. It’s a symptom of the problem, which has more to do with the contempt that the people Third Way is talking to have for their neighbors. The words they use to convey that animus are truly secondary.