What does the F word mean to you? (Issue #10)

Language matters... but how?

Author

Chris Musei-Sequeira
April 03, 2025

This image shows the professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat on the left half, and a black-and-white photo of Benito Mussolini on the right half. SOURCE: Screenshot from: WIRED. (2025, March 18). History Professor answers dictator questions | Tech Support | WIRED [Video]. YouTube. Last accessed 3 April 2025 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK6fALsenmw

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I’ll get to the point: I watched the YouTube video “History Professor Answers Dictator Questions” by WIRED, featuring Professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat responding to questions sent in over social media. The first question she answers in the video is, “Bro wtf is fascism”—and I found myself mulling over this question as I stepped away to take a short trip. If you’ve been listening to my podcast recordings with Heather Luna, you already know that I’ve been turning increasingly inward and focusing more on how I can support the people closest to me. This stands in contrast to the broader and more-abstract questions of sustainability I was writing about last year, starting with my first newsletter issue “The flying elephant in the room.”

I came back from my trip thinking the following: have I heard the people closest to me (which is naturally a small number of people) asking whether Trump is a fascist?

Answer: No.

But what I do hear the people closest to me (including myself lol) asking is a different set of questions. For example:

  • Is our money safe in the banks? Where are the safest places to put it? Should we keep more of it at home?

  • How could we find each other if my phone is taken away?

  • If we travel outside of the USA, will we be let back in? What do we have to do to ensure that we are?

  • Will my clients get their Federal grant applications accepted? Will those grant programs even exist in 6 months?

  • Will the Federal government pay my invoices for the work I’ve already performed?

If you’re saying to yourself, “those seem like reasonable questions to ask regardless of who the President is,” well… I agree. But I suppose that’s my point: the mindset of the folks closest to me is less of “if terminology applies, then do X” and more of “how is my risk profile changing?” Their mindsets remind me that our lives are composed of tiny little choices that can add up to big changes in vector over time.

And yet, what are the different factors that affect those tiny little choices?

To those who recoil at use of the F word, or the A word, or the D word, or the C word, or any other similar term of art in the context of, I say: fine. Forget the labels. Focus instead on what is happening in the United States of America—who is doing the acting, what actions they are taking, and who is being acted upon. I try not to think in bright lines anymore, but the structure here is clear: subject, verb, object.

Who is doing what to whom? And what is the response?

Language matters—this is something that many of you are already aware of. The deeper question is: how does it matter, to you specifically? Would calling a spade a spade cause you to change your behavior? Would that impact the myriad choices that make up your daily life? Or your mindset more of, “a rose by any other name”…

Here are my questions for you

  • If I use the word “regime” instead of “Administration,” what comes up for you?

  • If I call Mahmood Khalil a “political dissident” instead of a “pro-Palestine activist,” what images form in your mind?

  • If I say “secret police” instead of “plain-clothes agents,” do your ears burn?

  • If I write “la migra” instead of “ICE,” how do you feel?

When you change your language, do you change your behavior?

Press the “reply” button in your email app and share with me your answers if you like. I’d love to talk to you.

Where to find the perspectives you’ve been missing

FIRST: Subscribe to the Morning Tinto podcast, where my friend Heather Luna and I use the lenses of oppression and resistance to talk about events that happen right before recording.

SECOND: Subscribe to our professional offers-and-needs networking events announcement list. Heather and I regularly host FREE online events where professionals can offer help (free or paid) and ask other professionals to meet their needs.

THIRD: Follow these awesome folks on LinkedIn:

FOURTH: Forward this issue to people you know who are doing decolonial and anti-oppression work.

Got something to say to me?

I’m Chris, the Principal of CJSC, LLC, and I’m (un)learning along with all of you — so hit the “reply” button and give me a piece of your mind!

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My name is Chris Musei-Sequeira, and I use he/him pronouns. My mother was born in Trinidad and Tobago as a descendant of African slaves brought to the islands during the time of European colonization. She came to the United States of America (USA) at the age of 10. My father is Goan and was born in India, in Mumbai, and raised Catholic and English-speaking. He came to the USA for his graduate studies, where he met my mother.

My sister and I were born in the USA and lived a middle-class life in the suburbs of multiple American cities. I studied aeronautical engineering and technology policy in university, then worked at the Federal Aviation Administration and as an aviation consultant. I've lived in cities up and down the USA East Coast since the age of 18; I now reside in Queens, New York with my wife.

I thank Heather Luna and Lavinia Muth for showing me the importance of publicly expressing our positions. Because of our positions, all of us are very familiar with some aspects of the world while having no idea of other aspects. Positionality expresses how our individual positions affect our relationships with other people and with the world as a whole.

Introductory image: Screenshot from: WIRED. (2025, March 18). History Professor answers dictator questions | Tech Support | WIRED [Video]. YouTube. Last accessed 3 April 2025 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK6fALsenmw