The Word of the Year Goes Goblin Mode - The New York Times - Dictionary

A year ago, the lexicographic grandees at Oxford Languages dutifully stuck out their arms and chose “vax” as the 2021 Word of the Year.

But this year, the venerable publisher behind the Oxford English Dictionary has — like the rest of us, apparently — gone full goblin mode.

“Goblin mode” — a slang term referring to “a type of behavior which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations” — has been named Oxford’s 2022 Word of the Year.

Yes, you read that right. Following a landslide online popular vote, an in-joke that surged to prominence thanks to a satirical viral tweet involving an actress, a rapper and a doctored headline has been named 2022’s One Word to Rule Them All.

“New words catch on when they capture our imagination, or fill a hole with a word for a concept we need to express,” Katherine Connor Martin, product director at Oxford Languages, said in a telephone interview. “What ‘goblin mode’ tells me is it resonated with the feeling that the pandemic is over, but we’re still grappling with it. Do we want to go back to the notions of respectability of the prepandemic world?”

The Word of the Year is based on usage evidence drawn from Oxford’s continually updated corpus of more than 19 billion words, gathered from news sources across the English-speaking world. The selection, according to Oxford, is meant “to reflect the ethos, mood or preoccupations” of the preceding year, while also having “potential as a term of lasting cultural significance.”

Normally, Oxford’s lexicographers assemble a list of words that had a statistically relevant surge, then choose one. This year, they took a more populist approach, announcing a short list of three — “goblin mode,” “#IStandWith” and “metaverse” — and then throwing it to a two-week online public vote.

“Having a group of people in Oxford choose it always felt weirdly undemocratic,” Martin said. “And this year, when people are talking about democracy as a thing that might be under threat, it didn’t feel like the right approach.”

The inclusion of “goblin mode” drew some consternation, as the Not Very Online went scrambling to Google. But for some, it was the clear winner — or at least the lesser of three evils.

In a passionate appeal, the website PC Gamer urged people to “put aside our petty differences and vote for ‘goblin mode,’” if only to thwart the milquetoast-y “#IStandWith” and the downright evil “metaverse.”

“Go vote for taking care of yourself and having joy in rejection of society’s stifling norms,” the website urged. Because “the metaverse that CEOs want to sell you is awful.”

The internet obeyed, delivering a whopping 93 percent of the more than 340,000 votes cast to “goblin mode.” “Metaverse” was the runner-up, with 4 percent.

The precise origins of “goblin mode” are murky. It popped up on Twitter as early as 2009, according to Oxford, but it went viral last spring, thanks to a satirical tweet featuring a fake news headline that quoted the actress Julia Fox saying that she and Kanye West broke up because he didn’t like it when she “went goblin mode.” (Fox later posted a denial on Instagram Stories, saying: “Just for the record, I have never used the phrase ‘goblin mode.’”)

The phrase, Martin said, reflects the influence of the language of gaming. “Goblin mode” may be new, but “beast mode,” she said, goes back farther, with some tracing it to the 1988 Sega video game Altered Beast.

Other dictionary companies have gone with more conventional choices. This year, Merriam-Webster chose “gaslighting” (based on a 1,740 percent surge in look-ups on its website). Cambridge Dictionaries went with “homer,” which was among the many five-letter words that surged this year thanks to Wordle. (On May 5, when “homer” was the winning word, look-ups — many presumably by non-Americans — spiked to 65,000.)

Martin sheepishly acknowledged that, in Oxford’s contest, she was #TeamMetaverse. “In some ways, that’s the boring, obvious one,” she said. “But there are a lot of things about it that are interesting.”

For one, it originates in science fiction, in Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel “Snow Crash.” And like “cyberspace,” which was coined in 1982 by the novelist William Gibson, it went “from science fiction to science fact” with the flowering of the internet.

So far, the trajectory of “metaverse” is unclear. “Will it become a thing that’s real? Or will it be a corny marketing term that nobody uses?” Martin said.

Thanks in part to Facebook’s rebranding as Meta (and staking its future on the metaverse), the prefix “meta” has already gone from being a highbrow philosophical word to something corporate and, for many, suspect. “Is the concept of people sitting around in goggles going to pollute the concept of ironic self-referentiality?” Martin asked.

She cited the usage expert Bryan Garner’s concept of “skunked words” — words that have become unusable, because of disputed meanings or problematic associations. “We wondered if that would happen to the verb ‘trump,’” she said. “But it didn’t.”

As for “goblin mode,” it will surely enjoy another spike thanks to the publicity around the Word of the Year. But — to use an adjective added to the O.E.D. in June — is it now officially cringe?

Martin laughed. “Almost certainly.”

Adblock test (Why?)

Navajo dictionary provides scientific terms for native speakers - The Journal - Dictionary

Sterling Martin studied biochemistry in college but found some words don’t translate into Diné Bizaad

Sterling Martin, 32, grew up in Shiprock speaking a mix of English and his native Navajo language. He helped create ENABLE, a dictionary for biological words in the Navajo language. (Courtesy of Sterling Martin)

Sterling Martin found that when he returned home to Shiprock while studying biochemistry at the University of Iowa, he had difficulty communicating his work to his family in their native tongue.

Martin, 32, is a member of the Navajo Nation and grew up speaking Diné Bizaad – the Navajo language – alongside English in his childhood home.

When explaining his studies, Martin grasped for words in Navajo that weren’t there. And as a result of their absence, he struggled to communicate with family members for whom the lack of accessibility to scientific language had quashed their interest in the subject.

“It was highly biochemical and I didn’t really know how to explain it in Navajo, so I would explain it in English and you could kind of just see there was a disconnect,” he said. “The message wasn’t really getting across.”

The words Martin needed were unfamiliar in English and nonexistent in Navajo.

“There wasn’t a lot of modern-day science terms – how do you begin to describe these things that come from Greek and Latin roots?” Martin questioned.

In 2019, Martin, along with a cohort of scientists, Diné Bizaad speakers and Navajo linguist Frank Morgan, set out to create a resource to solve the problem. The result was a project titled Enriching Navajo As a Biology Language for Education, or ENABLE.

The online dictionary, now about 250 words strong, contains a trove of scientific biological terms on an accessible website with definitions in both English and Navajo.

The language is many centuries old and has been at risk of extinction due in part to residential boarding schools that imposed a violence-driven learning model upon Indigenous students to eradicate their languages. As a result, there were few direct translations for biological terms and concepts that came into common parlance in the last century and a half.

Despite this absence, there are concepts and images that do exist in the Navajo language from which ENABLE’s team could draw.

For example, there was no Navajo word with which to describe positive or negative charge. However, the concept of something moving clockwise, or with the path of the sun does exist. And so, ENABLE’s definition of “proton” is “atom bitsiniltł'ish shá bik'ehgo siláii,” which translates literally to “charge of the atom laid down in the path of the sun.”

Because Navajo is a tonal language, Martin had members of his family record some of the words in the dictionary to preserve the proper pronunciation. This aspect was also critical given that some speakers do not write the language.

An entry in the Enriching Navajo As a Biology Language for Education dictionary for proton is based upon the Navajo concept of the sun’s clockwise movement. (Courtesy of ENABLE)

The effort to make the project accessible extended beyond just audio recording of pronunciations. The team enlisted the help of Ira Fich, a web developer, to make the website as accessible as possible. Users can find terms alphabetically in both English and Diné Bizaad, and each entry includes a literal translation, as well as a definition and example of use in both languages.

“We can’t just translate Latin words because that doesn’t mean anything to us,” Morgan said. “... Our job was to take these really complex science words and break them down into little bite-sized pieces that scientifically made sense, but also made sense to someone who was learning science.”

The team targeted middle-school level vocabulary because that is where scientific education begins to rely heavily on specific terminology, making it also the period at which many students lose interest.

“People have told me that if this is how they were taught science when they were going to school, they would happily be scientists now,” Martin said.

ENABLE’s founders consulted with high school teachers on Navajo tribal land and prioritized translating certain terms based off that research.

Although it may have started as a way for Martin to share his doctoral thesis on worm embryology with his family, the dictionary is not just about making the minutiae of Western science accessible to Navajo speakers. Martin said it can also unlock a broader understanding of Indigenous knowledge.

Martin points to a 2017 study as evidence of exactly the sort of knowledge that the dictionary can help bring to light. A master’s student at Northern Arizona University found that traditional blue corn-based dishes that contain juniper ash are providing a critical nondairy source of calcium to Navajo people, many of whom are lactose intolerant.

He says the dictionary could also be useful were the Navajo Nation to lift the tribal ban on genetic research, which has been in place since 2002. The ban was instituted over concerns that Navajo genetic material was being mishandled, but is now reportedly under reconsideration. The tools provided by the dictionary could allow researches to explain their work to community members who previously lacked the tools to comprehend it.

The creators of the dictionary have also been quite conscious to avoid listing terms for concepts or practices that remain sacred within the community and are not to be shared outside of it.

Although work on the dictionary began before the COVID-19 pandemic, it surged in relevance once biomedical words suddenly populated all forms of media. Martin is conducting his postdoctoral research in St. Louis, but he said he heard that anecdotally, health care workers were using the dictionary on their phones in clinical settings to communicate with Navajo patients.

“There aren’t many fluent Navajo speakers, and the people who do hold the knowledge are elders and my family’s generation and they were getting hit the hardest with (COVID-19),” Martin said. “It was a race against the clock to document these things now before we reach a point where we’re going to lose this knowledge forever.”

Martin and the ENABLE team hope to finish recording and defining all 250 words in their catalog before ultimately compiling a middle school science textbook in the Navajo language.

rschafir@durangoherald.com

Adblock test (Why?)

Navajo dictionary provides scientific terms for native speakers - The Durango Herald - Dictionary

Sterling Martin studied biochemistry in college but found some words don’t translate into Diné Bizaad

Sterling Martin, 32, grew up in Shiprock speaking a mix of English and his native Navajo language. He helped create ENABLE, a dictionary for biological words in the Navajo language. (Courtesy of Sterling Martin)

Sterling Martin found that when he returned home to Shiprock while studying biochemistry at the University of Iowa, he had difficulty communicating his work to his family in their native tongue.

Martin, 32, is a member of the Navajo Nation and grew up speaking Diné Bizaad – the Navajo language – alongside English in his childhood home.

When explaining his studies, Martin grasped for words in Navajo that weren’t there. And as a result of their absence, he struggled to communicate with family members for whom the lack of accessibility to scientific language had quashed their interest in the subject.

“It was highly biochemical and I didn’t really know how to explain it in Navajo, so I would explain it in English and you could kind of just see there was a disconnect,” he said. “The message wasn’t really getting across.”

The words Martin needed were unfamiliar in English and nonexistent in Navajo.

“There wasn’t a lot of modern-day science terms – how do you begin to describe these things that come from Greek and Latin roots?” Martin questioned.

In 2019, Martin, along with a cohort of scientists, Diné Bizaad speakers and Navajo linguist Frank Morgan, set out to create a resource to solve the problem. The result was a project titled Enriching Navajo As a Biology Language for Education, or ENABLE.

The online dictionary, now about 250 words strong, contains a trove of scientific biological terms on an accessible website with definitions in both English and Navajo.

The language is many centuries old and has been at risk of extinction due in part to residential boarding schools that imposed a violence-driven learning model upon Indigenous students to eradicate their languages. As a result, there were few direct translations for biological terms and concepts that came into common parlance in the last century and a half.

Despite this absence, there are concepts and images that do exist in the Navajo language from which ENABLE’s team could draw.

For example, there was no Navajo word with which to describe positive or negative charge. However, the concept of something moving clockwise, or with the path of the sun does exist. And so, ENABLE’s definition of “proton” is “atom bitsiniltł'ish shá bik'ehgo siláii,” which translates literally to “charge of the atom laid down in the path of the sun.”

Because Navajo is a tonal language, Martin had members of his family record some of the words in the dictionary to preserve the proper pronunciation. This aspect was also critical given that some speakers do not write the language.

An entry in the Enriching Navajo As a Biology Language for Education dictionary for proton is based upon the Navajo concept of the sun’s clockwise movement. (Courtesy of ENABLE)

The effort to make the project accessible extended beyond just audio recording of pronunciations. The team enlisted the help of Ira Fich, a web developer, to make the website as accessible as possible. Users can find terms alphabetically in both English and Diné Bizaad, and each entry includes a literal translation, as well as a definition and example of use in both languages.

“We can’t just translate Latin words because that doesn’t mean anything to us,” Morgan said. “... Our job was to take these really complex science words and break them down into little bite-sized pieces that scientifically made sense, but also made sense to someone who was learning science.”

The team targeted middle-school level vocabulary because that is where scientific education begins to rely heavily on specific terminology, making it also the period at which many students lose interest.

“People have told me that if this is how they were taught science when they were going to school, they would happily be scientists now,” Martin said.

ENABLE’s founders consulted with high school teachers on Navajo tribal land and prioritized translating certain terms based off that research.

Although it may have started as a way for Martin to share his doctoral thesis on worm embryology with his family, the dictionary is not just about making the minutiae of Western science accessible to Navajo speakers. Martin said it can also unlock a broader understanding of Indigenous knowledge.

Martin points to a 2017 study as evidence of exactly the sort of knowledge that the dictionary can help bring to light. A master’s student at Northern Arizona University found that traditional blue corn-based dishes that contain juniper ash are providing a critical nondairy source of calcium to Navajo people, many of whom are lactose intolerant.

He says the dictionary could also be useful were the Navajo Nation to lift the tribal ban on genetic research, which has been in place since 2002. The ban was instituted over concerns that Navajo genetic material was being mishandled, but is now reportedly under reconsideration. The tools provided by the dictionary could allow researches to explain their work to community members who previously lacked the tools to comprehend it.

The creators of the dictionary have also been quite conscious to avoid listing terms for concepts or practices that remain sacred within the community and are not to be shared outside of it.

Although work on the dictionary began before the COVID-19 pandemic, it surged in relevance once biomedical words suddenly populated all forms of media. Martin is conducting his postdoctoral research in St. Louis, but he said he heard that anecdotally, health care workers were using the dictionary on their phones in clinical settings to communicate with Navajo patients.

“There aren’t many fluent Navajo speakers, and the people who do hold the knowledge are elders and my family’s generation and they were getting hit the hardest with (COVID-19),” Martin said. “It was a race against the clock to document these things now before we reach a point where we’re going to lose this knowledge forever.”

Martin and the ENABLE team hope to finish recording and defining all 250 words in their catalog before ultimately compiling a middle school science textbook in the Navajo language.

rschafir@durangoherald.com

Adblock test (Why?)

Online Dictionary Accepts New Words Created by Pentucket Regional High School Latin Students - John Guilfoil Public Relations LLC - Dictionary

For immediate release

WEST NEWBURY – Superintendent Justin Bartholomew and Principal Jonathan Seymour are pleased to share that 10 Pentucket Regional High School students have coined new words that have been accepted into an online dictionary.

Students in Leanne Villani’s Latin V class study the etymology of words, including engineering of new words, called neologisms. (A person who coins a new word is considered a “neologist.” The word stems from the French “néologisme.” Its French creator is unknown.)

Earlier this year students viewed a 2014 TedTalk by lexicographer Erin McKean, former editor-in-chief of American Dictionaries for Oxford University Press, who encouraged her audience to create new words to be better understood.

The students created words that were submitted to WordNik, McKean’s online dictionary:

• Caitlin Armao, “magisenssibous,” how a teacher feels about you based on preconceived notions of their feelings towards your sibling.
• Kate Drislane, “inexludivolous,” when an individual hates a sport/activity but would never quit since he or she has done it for too long.
• Yanni Kakouris, “subartor,” an under-qualified person lacking in particular skills.
• Trevor Kamuda, “dejucibimalphilial,” when you think a food is going to be gross but is actually good.
• Elizabeth Murphy, “semiocultaction,” the act of not fully making eye contact.
• Jackson Neumann, “inconscisultable,” Not knowing if someone is being sarcastic.
• Grace Pherson, “posthemercras,” the day after tomorrow. 
• Julia Seeley, “infratrephobia, the fear of being seen as inferior to a sibling. 
• Stratton Seymour, “ceacosequitor,” one who blindly follows/is unable to think for themselves.
• Owen Tedeschi, “dissesquipedusion,” the misuse of large words.

The District learned in late September that the students’ words had been accepted.

Students were thrilled and proud to be published neologists like William Shakespeare, who is credited with creating more than 1,700 words.

“Most important, this activity extended the learning outside of the classroom into the global community,” Villani said. “I also wanted students to appreciate how they can apply their knowledge of Latin to improve their use of English by becoming more empowered speakers, writers and readers.”

From left, Latin V Seniors Jackson Neumann, Yanni Kakouris, Trevor Kamuda, Katie Drislane, Caitlin Armao, Elizabeth Murphy, Grace Pherson, Owen Tedeschi and Stratton Seymour, created new words that have been accepted in an online dictionary. Not pictured: Julia Seeley. (Courtesy Pentucket Regional School District)

Adblock test (Why?)

Grammar Moses: 'Gaslighting' sparks dictionary lookups - Daily Herald - Dictionary

Before flipping the calendar to December, the lexicographers at Merriam-Webster rolled the dice and released their list of most popular lookups for 2022.

I guess if "Mystery comet" or "Y2K23" don't make a run for it by New Year's Eve, it'll be smooth sailing until next year.

The word of the year is ... "gaslighting."

I've always loved this word, in part because it originated from the title of a play and the films that followed.

What the Farrelly brothers' "Kingpin" couldn't do for "munsoned," "Gaslight" did for "gaslighting" -- create a lasting, ubiquitous descriptor out of popular entertainment. (You get extra credit if you got the "munsoned" reference.)

"Gaslight" was a 1940 English film based on a play of the same name (the American version with Joseph Cotton was released four years later) in which a wife notices the gas lights in her home keep dimming, owing to her husband's secretly rooting around in the attic.

His nocturnal activities cause the rest of the lights to dim, but he tells her she is imagining it.

The new "Gaslit" miniseries starring Julia Roberts and Sean Penn likely also stirred interest.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

"Gaslighting" has grown over the years to describe various ways people try to mislead others to the gaslighters' advantage.

Think of the ways we try to manipulate each other on the internet, how other nations are trying to hoodwink us to alter and weaken our electoral process.

It's a long con form of psychological manipulation that makes the target question his or her own thoughts, perception of reality and mental stability.

Gosh, what's not an example of gaslighting today?

Merriam-Webster says there has been a 17-fold increase in people looking up the word in its online dictionaries this year.

I am heartened by one thing -- that a goodly number of people showed enough concern about it to learn more.

As the old saying goes, if you don't know who the sucker is, it's you.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Merriam-Webster's runners-up are: oligarch, omicron, codify, LGBTQIA, sentient, loamy (it was a solution in both Wordle and Quordle), raid and queen consort.

"Raid?" Really? Again, I can take comfort in those who don't know what a raid is to take the time to research it.

That's progress.

Leftovers

In fairness to others who contributed ideas for the book idea I've shelved on eggcorns, mondegreens and malapropisms, here are a few more funny ones:

• We were driving through the forests of Montana on a family vacation. A Crystal Gayle song was on the radio. From the back seat, our young son was belting out "Doughnuts make my brownies blue" instead of "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue."

­-- Barbara Hocking

• Neil Diamond wrote and recorded a song in 1978 called "Forever in Blue Jeans." Until recently, every time I heard that tune I heard it as "Reverend Blue Jeans." I always took it to be an upbeat tune about a man who dressed casually and ministered to his flock while wearing blue jeans. My son and daughter heard it as "Rev. Blue Jeans," too.

-- Don Frost

• Although every song by R.E.M. could qualify, one of the toughest ones to decipher is "Sitting Still." Actual lyrics: "We could bind it in a scythe. We could gather, throw a fit. Up to buy, Katie buys a kitchen-size, but not Mae Ann. Setting trap for love, making a waste of time, sitting still."

Misheard as: "We could vomit in the sink. We could gather, throw a fit. Up to par and Katie bar the kitchen door but not me in. Sitting on top of the big hill, wasting time sitting still."

-- Ronn Gregorek

• I still like my mother's rendition of Jimmy Buffett's "Margaritaville," in which she said "stepped on a Pop-Tart" instead of "stepped on a pop top."

-- Cynthia Cwynar

From an Easter hymn at Mass: "Lo in the gravy lay" vs.

"Lo, in the grave He lay."

-- Jim Lowers

Thanks again, generous readers.

Listen carefully!

• Jim Baumann is vice president/executive editor of the Daily Herald. You can buy Jim's book, "Grammar Moses: A humorous guide to grammar and usage," at

grammarmosesthebook.com. It makes the perfect stocking stuffer. If you would like an autographed copy, write Jim at jbaumann@dailyherald.com.

Adblock test (Why?)

Genius English Translations – RM - Yun ft. Erykah Badu (English Translation) - Genius - Translation

[unable to retrieve full-text content]

Genius English Translations – RM - Yun ft. Erykah Badu (English Translation)  Genius

Secretary Antony J. Blinken with Thomas Sotto of France 2 - United States Department of State - Department of State - Translation

Via Translation

QUESTION:  Good afternoon, Antony Blinken.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Good afternoon.

QUESTION:  Thank you for giving a little bit of your time, which I know is very precious, for Télématin and for the viewers of France 2.  Thank you also for doing this interview in French, which is a language you master perfectly.  You lived in Paris for many years.

Emmanuel Macron is on a state visit here in the United States, a warm state visit.  Yet, if you look in the rearview mirror over the last 20 years, the relationship between our two countries has not always been simple. There have been disagreements on Iraq, there have been disagreements on Syria, on the climate crisis during Donald Trump’s time, on the Australian submarine contracts that you have somewhat stolen, it must be said.  How would you characterize the relationship between our two countries today?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Quite frankly, excellent.  And that’s mostly because we don’t look in the rearview mirror.  We’re looking straight ahead, and we both see that we have a deep interest in doing what we’ve been doing for years, which is working together on issues that impact the lives of our citizens.

Neither France nor the United States has the capacity, alone, to act effectively on these issues, whether it be climate, whether it be global health, whether it be all the new technologies, the necessary investments in infrastructure – on all these levels, we both need to work together.

QUESTION:  There is a topic that is kind of upsetting people about the economy, at the moment.  It is said that you are very protectionist, and Emmanuel Macron said: it is a choice that risks fragmenting the West.  Is there a way to negotiate on this or not?  On the Act on inflation…

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  There was a very good conversation between the presidents today on this issue. We have the same goals. We both have to face the climate challenge. To do that, one of the things we need to do is invest in new technologies and energy that is conducive to dealing with this challenge. We want to do it in a way that creates jobs, but not only jobs –

QUESTION:  You want to create jobs and attract everyone in the United States?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Exactly, we agree that we need to do it in a way that creates jobs here, yes, but jobs in Europe; jobs here, but not at the expense of what’s happening in Europe.  And the two presidents have agreed to work with the European Union to synchronize our approaches.

QUESTION:  Our two countries, France and the United States, are very involved in the war in Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression.  Just this week, you announced $400 million in American aid to the Ukrainians.  It’s been more than nine months now since this war started.  Do you see a way out of it, Antony Blinken?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  I would like to, but it depends entirely on decisions made by Moscow, by President Putin.  This war could end tomorrow if Putin stops.  In a sense, it’s very simple: he must stop what he started.  But, apart from that, what is needed – both presidents are in full agreement, is to continue our support for Ukraine, for the Ukrainian people, both in terms of economic and humanitarian security.

But of course, what is Putin doing right now?  Even though he sometimes says he’s ready for diplomacy, he’s attacking the civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.

QUESTION:  He’s playing the cold card.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  He’s playing the cold card.  He’s weaponizing winter.

QUESTION:  So, Antony Blinken, do you think it’s time for Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky to talk?  Has this time come?  Has the time for dialogue and direct conversation come?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  If we saw Putin was serious about diplomacy and dialogue, yes. The problem is, he’s doing just the opposite.  He’s inciting now to escalate things.

QUESTION:  So, dialogue is impossible today?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  If there is a seriousness on the Russian side, dialogue is always possible. We’re always open to that.  Zelensky, the president, has made it clear that at the end of the game, there’s going to have to be negotiation, diplomacy.  We think exactly the same thing.  Moreover, President Zelensky has put forward a plan to bring about an end to the war. For the moment, Putin is not on board. It depends on him.

QUESTION:  Do you still have contacts? Do you have contacts with Russia and with the Russians, which are not necessarily official?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Yes, we have contacts.  We have contacts, especially if there are important moments when we have to talk.  For example, there was contact with Russia because there was a fear that they might use a nuclear weapon, which would be catastrophic for…

QUESTION:  Is that a fear for you?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  It’s a fear. I wouldn’t say we haven’t seen a specific movement on that, but it’s still a fear in an emergency for them, exactly.

QUESTION:  You don’t rule it out, do you?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  We’re not ruling it out, but more importantly, it’s not just us.  You even have Xi Jinping in China who has made statements on this. Other leaders who have made, who have said very clearly to Putin, don’t go there.

QUESTION:  Are you concerned that this could lead to a third world conflict, or are we playing scare tactics?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  No, for President Biden, it’s critical that we avoid expanding the conflict.  On the contrary, we want to bring it to an end, but above all, we don’t want to expand it.  We don’t want a war with Russia.  We do not want a third world war.  That’s not what we want at all.  On the other hand, what we need for peace: it must not be only on paper, the peace, but it must be fair, so with the principles of the UN charter.  And it must be sustainable, because, in a sense, there is no point in making a false peace that will be rejected very quickly and Russia goes to war again.  What we have to avoid, for example, is the idea that we freeze things in place.  Russia in this context will never negotiate the territories that were taken by force.

QUESTION:  What is the scope? We have to go back to the pre-February 24 borders or even Crimea?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  That’s Ukraine’s decision.

QUESTION:  Okay.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  We don’t make decisions for Ukraine. We’re going to support Ukraine’s decisions.

QUESTION:  Let’s imagine, Antony Blinken, that this war finally ends tomorrow. Would Vladimir Putin automatically become an interlocutor for the United States again?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Uh, really, I can’t speculate.  What he’s done is very difficult for everyone to digest.  The most important thing now is to end this war, but in a fair and lasting way. After that, we’ll see.

QUESTION:  Do you fear that the post-Putin era will be even worse than Putin?  I am thinking in particular of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the formidable founder of the Wagner militia.  Does that worry you?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  You know that for us… What’s important is not the personalities, it’s the policy that Russia will follow. So, having, you know — and President Biden said it earlier, President Putin has miscalculated very badly on Ukraine.  Everything he tried to avoid, he precipitated.  In the West, we are not divided.  On the contrary, we are united and unified.  Ukraine is more united than ever.  What we see in Russia is catastrophic for Russia. More than a million Russians have left.  It may be good for Putin because it’s the very people who might be opposed to him, but it’s catastrophic for Russia and for its future.

QUESTION:  There are also demonstrations in China in reaction to Xi Jiping’s authoritarian policies under the guise of fighting Covid.  Does that make you happy in the name of democratic values or does it worry you?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  You know, the fact that people are demonstrating, that they’re trying to express their frustrations, obviously we support that, whether it’s in China, whether it’s in Iran, whether it’s wherever you want.

QUESTION:  You support the protesters.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  We support their freedom to express themselves and to show their frustrations. At the same time, if there is a crisis, if there is a problem with Covid in China, we are not happy at all.  On the contrary, for us, it would be a very good thing if China could find a way to deal with this problem, both for the Chinese people, but also for everyone.

QUESTION:  But do you think that this unrest, these demonstrations that we’re not used to, can rock the regime?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  I can’t make a prediction.  Is it — for us, what we want to see is: what are the desires of the Chinese people, and do they have the capacity to express their desires?  Does the political system have the capacity to respond to the wishes of the Chinese people?

QUESTION:  You could support the wishes of the Chinese people?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Of course. But what we must look at is what is the path that China will take in the face of Covid, and we want China to be successful because it’s bad not only for the Chinese people, it’s bad for everybody – the global economy.  There are consequences for the global economy when China shuts down.

QUESTION:  You have a trip planned there in January, in a month.  Is that trip still on?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Yes, we’re going to China early next year. Whether it’s January or February, we’re not sure yet, but it’s based on a conversation that President Biden had with President Xi Jinping at the G20 a few weeks ago.

QUESTION:  And then there’s Iran, which has also been in a state of rebellion for the past few weeks, since the death in September of Mahsa Amini, the young woman who was arrested by the morality police and eventually killed. Men are now starting to join protest movements there.  And then, there was that image you must have seen, of the Iranian soccer team refusing to sing the Iranian anthem in the first games in support of the protesters.  What does that image mean to you, Antony Blinken?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  I’m inspired mainly by the fact that, since the death of Mahsa Amini, we have seen this extraordinary demonstration of the will of the Iranian people to express themselves, led by women, led by young people.  This too is something we support.

But we must be very clear on this.  The subject is not us, the United States.  It’s not the West. France is not the subject.  It’s the Iranian people and it’s their desire to be able to express themselves freely, and that’s what we support.  Moreover, we are trying to –

QUESTION:  Would you say that Iran, the Iranian regime, is a threat to the world or to the equilibrium of the world today?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  What we’re seeing, both in the region itself and then even beyond that, because we’re seeing for example [inaudible] of armaments to Russia for aggression in Ukraine –

QUESTION:  Iran is supporting Russia.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Iran is not only supporting, but supporting with drones that are killing Ukrainian civilians, as we speak – and trying to destroy their infrastructure.  So, it’s a threat in that sense.  It is a threat in the region, supporting terrorist groups, supporting groups that destabilize countries.  So, I think that here too, France and the United States are in complete agreement on the need to face this challenge, but obviously –

QUESTION:  Could there be a joint response one day?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  There are already joint responses.  We have worked together.  We still do on the nuclear issue.

QUESTION:  Yes.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  We are in full agreement.

QUESTION:  A military response?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  And we’re also working on how to deal with the security challenge posed by Iran.

QUESTION:  All these people, these populations, the Iranians, the Chinese, we could add those who fight for the defense of human rights in Qatar, they need social networks to express themselves.  Is Elon Musk’s Twitter working for you?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  We will have to see what the facts are. Again, it’s not about a person, it’s about –

QUESTION:  We’re starting to see, though –

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  We’ll see in the weeks and months to come.  This is obviously a very important platform worldwide.  We hope that this platform is a space where people can express themselves but not with false information, disinformation.

QUESTION:  He will have to apply the European rules on content moderation, otherwise Twitter could even be banned in Europe.  That’s what the European Commission said today.  Are you on the same page?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  For us, it’s important to do everything possible to maintain the free exchange of expression and information.  It’s the first amendment.  We take that very seriously, but we have to deal with this problem that we both face: how to deal with spaces where misinformation wins the game.

QUESTION:  You have two Twitter accounts, one is your Secretary of State account and the other one, personal.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Yes.

QUESTION:  Did you pay, will you pay the eight euros for the subscription fee or not?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  (Laughs) I’m going to ask my staff if they paid for — uh — with the State Department.  We’ll see how.

QUESTION:  We’re going to stay in the United States.  How is your President Joe Biden really doing?  Because there’s some concern that he’s tired, a little bit absent, a little bit disconnected.  Is there a little bit of concern there, or not?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  (Laughs) I have a hard time keeping up with him because he’s always ten steps ahead of me, both physically, but also in terms of ideas.  He has not only – how could I say it – an enormous amount of physical energy, but also an enormous amount of intellectual energy.

QUESTION:  So, you’re not worried.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Not at all, on the contrary.  My only concern is being able to keep up with him, myself.

QUESTION:  All right, then.  Let’s talk about you.  You’re 60 years old.  You’re young.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Yes.

QUESTION:  You’ve been in all the most strategic positions in the United States for over 20 years.  When you shave in the morning, do you ever think about the presidency of the United States?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  (Laughs) Oh, not at all!

QUESTION:  Never?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  No.  You know, I’m incredibly lucky to be able to do this job.

QUESTION:  Yes.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  I have spent almost 30 years in foreign policy.  So, to be able to have the opportunity for a few years to do this job, and especially here at the State Department where I started, almost 30 years ago, for me, it’s really all I could have wanted.

QUESTION:  We’re coming to the end of this interview, Antony Blinken. Seen from Europe, we sometimes have the impression that we are at the end of a world, with the wars we have talked about; the environmental alert that seems more and more irreversible; with the set back of fundamental rights that also concerns you; with the set back of the right to an abortion.  How do you manage to remain optimistic?  How do you manage to keep the faith?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  It’s true that this is a period, an inflection point, where the world we knew, the post-Cold War world, is over.  And there is a competition to define who will follow and what will follow.

QUESTION:  Are you worried about your children?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  What gives me hope, I’ll tell you, is precisely what happened today with France, with our allies, because the challenge for President Biden was to renew our alliances, to energize our partnerships, precisely because we’re convinced that, on all these issues, we need to work together.  We need to find cooperation, and we need to demonstrate that democracies can deliver. This is precisely what we are doing with France.

QUESTION:  For my very last question, let’s go back to soccer, the World Cup.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  (Laughs)

QUESTION:  You have a double culture, American and also French.  Really, who do you support?  The United States or les Bleus?

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  I support the U.S. team, but –

QUESTION:  Ah!

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  If the U.S. team doesn’t make it, and if France is still in the game, Allez les Bleus!

QUESTION:  Ah, very good!  Thank you very much, Antony Blinken, for giving us a little bit of your time.  Thank you very much.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thank you.

Adblock test (Why?)