The Acronym Game: How the Right Strips Meaning from Words

The authoritarian right won’t say they’re against diversity. They won’t say they’re against equity. They won’t say they’re against inclusion.

Instead, they just say “DEI”—and let their audience fill in the blanks.

Why? Because words have power. And when they say the actual words—Diversity. Equity. Inclusion.—people start thinking. They start questioning. They connect the rhetoric to real people, real lives, real struggles. And that’s when the illusion shatters. That’s when the game falls apart. That’s when they lose.

It’s easier to say you hate “DEI” than to admit you oppose diversity in workplaces, equity in education, or inclusion in public life. It’s easier to say “DEI hiring is bad” than to say you think workplaces should be whiter, straighter, and male-dominated.

Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and J.D. Vance don’t just use the acronym. They weaponize it—turning what is essentially a corporate HR framework into an existential crisis. It’s the new “woke,” the new “political correctness”—a boogeyman for an audience eager to believe that someone, somewhere, is getting something they don’t deserve.

They don’t want you thinking about black students shut out of universities, their futures rewritten by exclusion. They don’t want you thinking about women and LGBTQ+ workers denied promotions, their ambitions capped by glass ceilings reinforced with bad faith. They don’t want you thinking about entire communities erased from boardrooms, from industries, from power—pushed to the margins and told they don’t belong. They don’t want you thinking about your wives, your daughters, your sons, your family—your neighbors. Because the moment you do, the moment you see the human cost, the moment you connect their rhetoric to real lives—you start asking questions.

And that’s when the authoritarian right’s grip starts to crack—when their fear-mongering stops working, when their lies fall apart, when people stop swallowing the propaganda and start demanding answers.

They need you drunk on rhetoric—and that’s why they keep spiking your mind with bureaucratic buzzwords.

The Hypocrisy Playbook: DEI When It Benefits Them, A Scapegoat When It Doesn’t

The game is rigged. The authoritarian right embraces diversity when it serves their interests—but when they need a scapegoat to mask their power grabs, they weaponize the acronym and turn marginalized communities into human shields.

Look at the pattern in action:

• Elon Musk calls DEI a “cancer” destroying meritocracy—but SpaceX and Tesla both run DEI programs and use diversity initiatives to secure government contracts. (SpaceX’s Diversity & Inclusion Report)
• Twitter (now X) gutted its DEI teams under Musk—while still using diversity commitments to secure ad deals and maintain legal protections. (The Verge)
• J.D. Vance rails against DEI as “woke indoctrination”—yet actively courts diverse voter bases when politically convenient. (WCNC)

And it’s not just politicians. Corporate America plays the same game.

• Google quietly slashed DEI initiatives in 2024—while still boasting about diversity commitments in global hiring reports. (Forbes.com)
• Walmart: The retail giant announced a reduction in its DEI programs, aligning with a broader trend among U.S. companies reassessing their diversity commitments. (apnews.com)

• Ford Motor Company: Ford has also scaled back its DEI initiatives, reflecting a shift in corporate focus. (apnews.com)

• Lowe’s: The home improvement retailer has reduced its DEI efforts, joining other companies in reevaluating their diversity policies. (apnews.com)
• John Deere: The agricultural equipment manufacturer has pulled back on its DEI programs amid growing scrutiny. (apnews.com)
• Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook): Meta has scaled back its DEI initiatives, reflecting a broader trend in the tech industry. (forbes.com)
• Amazon: The e-commerce giant has reduced its DEI efforts, aligning with other major corporations “reassessing” their diversity commitments. (theguardian.com)
• McDonald’s: The fast-food chain has joined the list of companies “scaling back” DEI initiatives, reflecting a shift in corporate priorities. (truthout.org)
• Toyota Motor Corporation: Toyota announced a refocusing of its DEI programs, ceasing sponsorship of certain events and narrowing its community activities. (advocate.com)
• Harley-Davidson: The motorcycle manufacturer has reduced its DEI initiatives, following a trend among major corporations. (en.wikipedia.org)
• Tractor Supply: The retail chain has scaled back its DEI programs amid external pressures. (apnews.com)

These corporations aren’t just “reassessing” DEI—they’re caving. Buckling under right-wing pressure, gutting diversity initiatives while still cashing in on the PR value of inclusivity. They’re making a calculated bet: that abandoning marginalized communities will be more profitable than standing by them. This isn’t a business decision—it’s a capitulation to an authoritarian agenda that wants DEI erased, replaced, and forgotten.

Meanwhile, in the lead-up to the 2024 election, Donald Trump spent $40 million on anti-trans ads, targeting a community that makes up less than 1% of the U.S. population—a classic authoritarian move: create an internal enemy to distract from power consolidation. (Vox, 2024)

Turning ‘DEI’ into a Slur: The Authoritarian Playbook

The Authoritarian Playbook: How They Turn DEI Into a Slur

The right has a simple formula, it’s called Semantic Inversion. And this is how it works:

1. Take a Positive.
   • Diversity. Equity. Inclusion.
   • Democracy. Freedom. Justice.
2. Now strip it of Meaning.
   • Reduce it to an acronym—”DEI”—so it loses emotional weight.
   • Rebrand it as inefficient bureaucracy, corporate excess, or “woke overreach.”
   • Conflate it with oppression—claiming DEI is “discrimination against white people,” just like they weaponized “election integrity” to mean voter suppression.
3. And then weaponize it.
   • Use DEI as a cultural scapegoat for economic downturns, corporate failures, and social unrest.
   • Paint Equity as forced redistribution, not fairness.
   • Rebrand Inclusion as elitist gatekeeping.

We’ve seen this before. “Politically correct.” “Woke.” “Antifa.” They hollow out the meaning, twist it, and turn it into an attack line. Now, they’re doing it with DEI—because the moment they say the full words, they lose the debate.

You’ve seen it plastered across right-wing media and blasted from the G.O.P. podium. But look closer—because every phrase is a lie wrapped in an American flag.

• ‘Election Integrity’ → Voter Suppression – Voter ID laws, gerrymandering, and mass purges of voter rolls—all under the banner of ‘protecting elections.’
• ‘Parental Rights’ → Book Bans & Anti-LGBTQ Laws – Censorship disguised as ‘choice,’ where ‘protecting children’ means erasing queer kids and history from classrooms.
• ‘Religious Freedom’ → Legalizing Discrimination – The right to deny healthcare, employment, and services—because ‘faith’ is now a shield for bigotry.
• ‘Patriotism’ → Excusing Fascism – Insurrectionists called ‘freedom fighters.’ Nazis marching in U.S. streets with police protection. If questioning authority is ‘un-American,’ what does that make them?

The Real Cost: How Anti-DEI Cuts Disproportionately Harm Marginalized Communities

This isn’t just political theater—real people are being hurt.

• After the Supreme Court gutted affirmative action, Black and Latin American college admissions plummeted overnight—by over 40% at some institutions. (pbs.org)
• When DEI jobs were slashed in 2023, reports of workplace discrimination surged by 31%. (pewresearch.org)
• And a McKinsey report found that diverse teams financially outperform competitors by 35%, yet companies cut DEI programs while maintaining executive bonuses. (McKinsey, 2023)

In Real-time: The Right’s New “DEI Watch List” and the War on Federal Workers

Authoritarian playbooks don’t change, they just get digital upgrades.

The American Accountability Foundation (AAF), a right-wing attack group disguised as a nonprofit, has launched a “DEI Watch List“—a public hit list targeting federal employees who work on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. It’s McCarthyism meets Breitbart, a database of names, photos, and government affiliations designed to paint mid-level bureaucrats as enemies of the state.

Their claim these career civil servants are “unelected radicals” imposing DEI on the federal government. Their real crime? Trying to make government agencies slightly less of an old boys’ club. (CNN)

If this sounds like a right-wing fever dream cooked up in some Steve Bannon war room, that’s because it basically is. The AAF is part of a larger push to purge the federal government of anyone deemed insufficiently loyal to Trumpism 2.0—a strategy straight out of Project 2025, the blueprint for authoritarian takeover under Trump’s second term.

But let’s be clear: This is an intimidation campaign and Federal workers are sounding the alarm, calling the list a “menace” designed to stoke fear and silence government employees who don’t toe the far-right line. The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal worker union, says the goal is clear: make DEI radioactive, make it too risky to defend, and gut it from the inside out. (theguardian.com)

And it’s working.

This kind of targeted harassment has a chilling effect—not just on the people whose names appear on the list, but on every government worker watching from the sidelines. If a mid-level HR specialist at the CDC can be branded a radical and publicly smeared for supporting inclusion efforts, who’s going to stick their neck out next?

This is the whole point. The authoritarian right doesn’t need to ban DEI outright—they just need to make it too dangerous to defend. They want self-censorship. They want fear to do the work for them.

And it doesn’t stop at DEI.

The AAF has other lists—including one targeting federal employees in immigration, education, and public health. The idea? Build a database of names so the new Trump administration knows exactly who to fire, who to blacklist, and who to replace with party loyalists. (theguardian.com)

This is how authoritarianism consolidates power: Find the reformers. Label them the enemy. Erase them.

Guantanamo Bay, January 29, 2025 – The Anti-DEI Agenda Goes Full Concentration Camp Mode

The Trump administration and the authoritarian right’s war on diversity, equity, and inclusion was never just about boardrooms or college admissions. It was always about erasure. Criminalization. Mass detention.

And now, they’re making it reality.

The U.S. military is already deporting flights of undocumented immigrants—primarily people of color—to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (npr.org, 2025)

This isn’t immigration policy. This is ethnic cleansing rebranded.

Understand that Trump’s administration isn’t just cutting DEI programs in government agencies. They are using the U.S. military to round up and disappear people into an offshore detention camp with a decades-long history of torture, indefinite detention, and human rights abuses.

This isn’t just a legal loophole. It’s a deliberate tactic straight out of the authoritarian playbook. 

Look at the pattern:

1. First, they attacked DEI in education → Banned books, outlawed affirmative action, and made diversity hiring illegal in some states. (washingtonpost.com)
2. Then, they purged DEI from government agencies → Fired civil servants working on racial equity, compiled public “watch lists” to intimidate DEI professionals, and gutted diversity offices in federal departments. (The National Review, 2025)
3. Now, they’re rounding up people of color and deporting them to Guantanamo. (DHS.gov, 2025)

Welcome to America: Missouri and Mississippi’s Dystopian Dream of Immigrant Roundups

Guantanamo Bay is the test run. Now, Missouri and Mississippi want to bring the blueprint home. Right now, lawmakers in both states are pushing legislation that reads like a rejected Philip K. Dick manuscript—detention camps, bounty hunters, and the kind of legalese that turns indefinite incarceration into standard operating procedure.

Missouri Senator David Gregory is leading the charge with Senate Bill 72 (SB 72)—a law that would make it a felony just to exist in the state without documentation. And if that sounds like something out of 1930s Germany, hold tight, because there’s more. The bill proposes a “Missouri Illegal Alien Certified Bounty Hunter Program”—yes, that’s the actual name—where state-certified bounty hunters would be deputized to hunt down undocumented people for sport and cash.

Report an undocumented immigrant? Congratulations, you just earned yourself a crisp thousand-dollar bill.

Not to be outdone, Mississippi Representative Justin Keen has cooked up a bill that reads like an even cheaper knockoff. House Bill 1484 (HB 1484) would also reward citizens for snitching on their undocumented neighbors and would create its own version of a bounty hunter program. And while neither bill explicitly says “internment camps,” the vague language about holding detainees indefinitely if they are deemed “unemployable” is the writing on the wall.

This isn’t about temporary processing centers. These are camps. Holding facilities with no clear exit, where people could disappear in bureaucratic limbo while red-state politicians slap each other on the back for being ‘tough on immigration’.

Missouri and Mississippi aren’t just testing the legal limits of cruelty; they’re seeing just how much fascism the American public will tolerate before somebody speaks up. 

This isn’t a conspiracy theory. It’s state law in the making. (stplr.org), (oklahomavoice.com)

If this sounds familiar, it should. The U.S. did this with Japanese internment during World War II. In 1942, under Executive Order 9066, over 100,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated to internment camps, stripped of their rights and freedoms. (Archives.gov),(history.com)

Then there were the ICE detention centers under Trump’s first administration. The Trump administration detained migrants attempting to enter the United States at the U.S.–Mexico border under conditions that failed federal standards, including prolonged detention, overcrowding, and poor hygiene. (immigrant justice.org), (en.wikipedia.org)

And, of course, the migrant children locked in cages at the border. In 2018, images emerged of children separated from their families and held in chain-link enclosures, sparking national outrage over the treatment of young migrants.(hrw.org),(bbc.com)

These historical and recent events reflect a recurring pattern of dehumanization and mass detention targeting marginalized communities. And just like Guantanamo, these state-run internment camps deliberately bypass due process by operating outside the traditional prison system. These detainees aren’t being charged, tried, or convicted. They are being warehoused.

Missouri and Mississippi aren’t ‘debating’ camps. They’re building them. ‘Indefinite detention’ isn’t policy jargon—it’s a life sentence without trial. People will grow old and die behind those fences. This is the next phase of mass incarceration. The next phase of erasure.

The Anti-DEI Connection: This Was Always the Plan

The people pushing these policies are the same ones railing against DEI, because DEI is a direct threat to their power. If you build a government and corporate structure where diversity, equity, and inclusion are prioritized, these policies can’t take root. (theconversation.com,(aaup.org)

But strip those protections away, and suddenly, you can funnel marginalized communities into an entire system built to exclude, detain, erase, and profit off them.

It starts with banning DEI in government. Then banning DEI in universities. Then gutting corporate DEI programs. And now they’re turning Guantanamo into an immigration prison and preparing to build detention camps in Missouri and Mississippi.

This isn’t about immigration. It never was. This is about normalizing a two-tiered system of justice—where the authoritarian right tightens its grip on power, and everyone else gets camps. Today, it’s undocumented immigrants. Tomorrow? Protesters. Journalists. Political opponents. History tells us how this story ends. (npr.org), (splinter.org), (wikipedia.org)

If you can’t say Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, you stand for exclusion, injustice, and supremacy. Own it—or step aside.

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Next Steps…

DON’T JUST READ THIS. ACT.

What You Can Do? Fight Back Against the DEI Smokescreen

The authoritarian right doesn’t just want to erase DEI. They want to erase the people DEI was meant to protect but we are not going to allow history to repeats itself.

This is how you push back.

1. Say the Words.

The right wins when they control the language of the debate. Don’t let them hide behind “DEI.” Call out what they mean.

Ask them directly…

Are you against diversity?

Are you against equity?

Are you against inclusion?

Watch. Them. Squirm.

2. Starve the Beast: Cut Their Funding, Cut Their Power

The first step? Choke the money.

• Boycott corporations gutting DEI while cashing in on diversity PR. Companies like Walmart, Ford, and Lowe’s have recently scaled back their diversity initiatives. apnews.com
• Flood your state reps with calls—demand they shut down Missouri’s concentration camps before they’re built. Missouri lawmakers have introduced legislation aimed at tracking and detaining undocumented immigrants. kfvs12.com
• Starve the propaganda machine. Stop giving ad revenue to DEI-smearing media. Identify and block outlets that spread anti-DEI rhetoric.
• Support organizations that fight back. Groups like Color of Change, NAACP, and Southern Poverty Law Center track corporate actions and hold them to account.

Power doesn’t vanish—it gets taken. Start taking it back.

3. Pressure Schools & Universities.

The rollback on DEI is happening fastest in education.

• Donate to scholarship funds for marginalized students affected by affirmative action rollbacks.
• Call or email your alma mater and ask: “What is your institution doing to support diversity now that affirmative action is gone?”
• If you’re a student or faculty member, organize DEI initiatives on campus—even if they try to defund them.

4. Starve the Propaganda Machine.

Right-wing media weaponizes fear of DEI to spread disinformation. Cut off their funding and reach:

• Boycott media outlets that promote anti-DEI rhetoric.
• Use ad-blockers on far-right sites so they don’t profit from your clicks. (Adblock Plus), (Ghostery)
• When anyone parrots a DEI myth, demand real citations so you can debunk their claims.

A prime example of this is when right-wing influencers baselessly blamed diversity policies for hindering responses to events like the California wildfires. (npr.org)

Similarly, President Donald Trump, without evidence, attributed a midair collision to the Federal Aviation Administration’s diversity hiring efforts. (reuters.com)

These unfounded claims have been debunked by reputable sources, highlighting the importance of fact-checking and relying on credible information.

When you think critically, you grow, and the authoritarian right loses.

5. Vote. Protest. Show Up.

They want us disoriented. They want us cynical. They want us too tired to fight back.

• Vote in every local, state, and federal election.
• Call your representatives. Flood their offices with emails. Demand answers. Express your concerns about anti-DEI legislation and initiatives. Utilize resources that provide scripts and contact information to effectively communicate your stance. Tools like 5 Calls offer issue summaries and scripts to guide your conversation. (theverge.com)
• March. Protest. Be loud.
• Every purchase you make has power. You are the economy.

Final Thought:

Call them out.

They won’t say “We’re dismantling diversity.”
They won’t say “We’re making spaces white.”
They won’t say “We’re undoing equity.”
They hide behind acronyms, slogans, and coded language.

If you hate “DEI,” say what you mean.
Say you hate Diversity. Equity. Inclusion.
Let the world see you for what you are.

If they control the words, they control the story. If they control the story, they control you. Take back control. Take back your future.