Alex Antic (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Buzzwords are a safe haven for the left's weak of mind. You know the words I'm talking about—words like 'microaggressions' and 'social constructs'. If I hear another person use the term 'lived experience', I think I'm going to lose it. What does it even mean? The use of such language in day-to-day life is an all-too-common experience. Phrases like 'lived experience' are like a secret handshake to enter an exclusive club of pseudointellectuals who use the terms to virtue signal the fact that they believe they are the self-appointed champions of social justice. Let's not forget the other contenders for overused buzzwords like 'systemic racism', 'white privilege', 'cultural appropriation', 'truth-telling' and the unholy trinity of 'diversity', 'equity' and 'inclusion'.

My lived experience as a cisgender, heteronormative white male means I'm probably guilty of mansplaining; and those opposite will likely dismiss this speech as being a result of my unconscious bias and white male privilege. However, language shapes our thoughts, our speech, our writing and our social interactions. If you can control language, you can control the discourse. Anyone who's endured a work meeting or a local council meeting or who's interacted with the bureaucracy has likely experienced the pain of being subjected to this linguistic fairy floss. You are, to use another of their favourite terms, being gaslit. Understand this guilt-tripping tactic and resist the temptation to use their language next time you're in a team meeting or trying to impress your manager. Who knows, your manager's lived experience might mean that they secretly agree with me and hate it too.