Hola a todos. This article is about language and an outdated style book used by The Washington Post (TWP). TWP is a conservative publication in the District of Columbia, the official name of the nation’s capital in the non-United States. People who live in the District, Maryland and Virginia suburbs refer to the nation’s capital as: the District, DC, Washington, or “in the City.” On the front page of The Washington Post, they use the language, “D.C.” constantly. That is seen saturated all over the front page. It occurred to me: Do most people know what “D.C.” stands for? I suspect not. Or they may have some vague incorrect idea of what “D.C.” stands for. The use of periods is outdated. Since the 1980s — per USPS guidelines — all states and the District of Columbia have used two letters without punctuation for their abbreviations, such as:

DC

MD

VA

As seen above for the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia. They seem to have a policy at TWP of not using the language “the District” on their front page as if readers won’t know what that means. My question: Why cater to stupid, ignorant people? And will the same, ignorant people know what “D.C.” stands for? If they don’t know what the District means, why would they know what DC means?

On my site, I refuse to cater to ignorance and stupidity. If some thick/dense person doesn’t know what I’m talking about — after I’ve explained it — that their problem.

I suppose most people would say, “oh yeah, I know Washington DC.” But what does the DC stand for? That’s where you would get a blank stare.

As I’ve written before, Washington and DC mean the same thing. They are synonymous. That’s because there is no Washington in DC. The official name of the nation’s capital is the District of Columbia, not Washington DC. It’s a Federal District independent of any state. In fact, the residents of the District don’t even have voting representation in the US Congress yet they pay taxes. That’s called “Taxation without Representation.”

Bottom Line: Why would The Washington Post think that readers would know what “D.C.” means any more so than presumably they don’t know what “the District” means.

Yet in the television newscasts that I’ve watched from the District, the corporate networks use the language that District residents use as you can hear in this video of one of their newscast. The networks don’t cater to stupidity like the conservative TWP does.

I wrote a comment about this on one fake-progressive site sometime ago, and I was trolled, as expected. The troll asked me: Does it matter what you call it? Well, yes it does like with any other place. It may not matter to people who say “Washington DC” and who refuse to change their language and their own behaviour, such as Mr/Ms Troll. But it does matter to District residents. When the BLM protests were going, I saw a guy in the protest wearing a black shirt that read “The District” on it, so it matters to him. When I moved to the District, I and my friends were given a friendly lecture on what to call our new home, our new City. It’s called the District, DC or Washington (without DC on it since that’s redundant). You did not call it Washington DC. That’s what the tourist call it who don’t know any better! One can always spot the tourists because you’ll hear them say, “Washington DC.” Ugh. Ask them what DC stands for and, again, I suspect they wouldn’t have a clue.

And it should also be pointed out that TWP seem absolutely terrified of the orange Führer. They certainly tip-toe around him.

And finally, if the corporate media and politicians used the language District of Columbia for the nation’s capital, they wouldn’t have to say “In Washington state” every time they refer to it. The state would be Washington (on the West Coast), and the nation’s capital the District of Columbia. Absolutely no confusion there. Chau.—el barrio rosa

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