Everyone in the Fifty States that has visited a supermarket or drugstore or discount/big-box store knows that Halloween is less than six weeks away.

Like every other popular holiday in the States (and no doubt much of “Western Civilization”), Halloween has been commercialized and profit-maximized to what would once have been considered unimaginable heights. We’ve been seeing the displays of candy and costumes and especially (at least to us, the dread specter of “pumpkin spice” everything edible or drinkable) for weeks.

But it isn’t just merchants and manufacturers who seek to maximize profit (or its equivalent) from the holiday. So too are the SJW and Woke enemies of liberty. Especially those who wish to and work constantly to end freedom of speech in the world.

Recently, an associate of TPOL was told by her corporate headquarters that she can no longer use the word “spook” when talking to people at work. Either as verb or noun. She was corrected when she referred to this period as being the “spooky time” as the once-beloved holiday approaches. That, she was told, is a no-no.

Why?

Because “spook” (at least as a noun) is racist and anti-black. (Or is it “Anti-African-American” instead?). Yes, indeed, NPR has said that – and actually did so six years ago, in 2017! It is a “racial slur” for people of color. So like the N-word and the S-words and the W-word and the I-word. (Sorry, can’t use them – try and guess!) “Spook” and “Spooky” and “Spooked” are not to be spoken for fear of offending people. They are going to always assume it is a racist slur. Hang the context!

Even in the Black Hills of South Dakota, apparently, the vocabulary police will rise up and condemn you, your family, your company, and the community as being racially biased, haters, and no doubt, fascists.

Quite a bit, eh? The word spook is an English borrow-word (probably but not clearly American English) from Dutch. Probably in Nieuw Amsterdam (New York). The Cambridge Dictionary defines it as “informal” for “ghost.” Etymology Online tells us it was borrowed in “1801, “spectre, apparition, ghost,” from Dutch spook, from Middle Dutch spooc, spoocke “a spook, a ghost,” from a common Germanic source (German Spuk “ghost, apparition,” Middle Low German spok “spook,” Swedish spok “scarecrow,” Norwegian spjok “ghost, specter,” Danish spøg “joke”), a word of unknown origin.”

NPR of course, says that it became a racist word in the United States way back in WW2: the 1940s. It seems some wag invented a quasi-pun calling the Tuskegee Airmen the “Spookwaffe.” There is nothing a quick search was able to find that condemned “spook” as unacceptable for any use before that 2017 article. Apparently NPR started something, as there are many condemnations found online in social media since then.

(Just in case you think I am speaking highly of NPR, please let me point out that NPR and its various affiliates have far less value to us here at TPOL than the worse of yellow-rag, Woke print newspapers. At least those can be used to line bird cages.)

Of course, NPR is (as many lovers of liberty have pointed out for years) government-controlled media. Although the organization appears to be critical of government, their general news and editorial position is strongly supportive of government in general and of so-called liberalism (“progressives”). Whatever their mission statement is officially, their unofficial role seems to be fragmenting and tearing down American society, customs, and even language and science. The writers, editors, and producers push wokeness and provide support to support anti-fascism, anti-racism, and other Woke causes.

So, is this an example of NPR’s attempting to find more ways to support the movement to reduce free speech to a politically-correct and redefined English?

Dear reader, what do you think? And will you be politically correct (or just cautious) and stop using the words “spook” and “spooky” and “spooked” as some are demanding?