If you haven’t come across it before, let me introduce you to ‘linguistic engineering’. This useful expression has been around since at least 1997 but I have only just recently discovered it. Legendary Australian journalist, the late Frank Devine, defined ‘linguistic engineering’ as ‘the imposition of an artificial set of new terms on a largely reluctant public’. He cites the promotion of the word ‘multiculturalism’ as an example of linguistic engineering. This word planted the idea that what divides us is more important than what unites us. A string of phrases being heavily promoted at the moment are also clearly attempts at linguistic engineering: phrases such as ‘unconscious racism’, ‘toxic masculinity’, ‘climate crisis’, ‘transphobia’, ‘diversity’ and ‘white privilege’. What is called ‘linguistic engineering’ by the language scholars is sometimes called ‘language planning for social change’ by the Marxists. Linguistic Engineering: Language and Politics in Mao’s China by Dr Ji Fengyuan shows that Mao’s most precise instrument of ideological transformation was a massive program of ‘linguistic engineering’. The Chinese communists taught the population a new political vocabulary, gave old words new meanings, supressed words that expressed ‘incorrect’ thoughts and imposed ‘correct’ linguistic forms in order to ‘correct’ thought. And the same sort of ‘linguistic engineering’ seems to be happening in much of the Western world today. Constant repetition is the tool used to drum these things into people’s heads. Having a name for this insidious process will help us to recognise it, resist it, and warn others about it.