Go Ad Free

You know, I have a letter “Z” in my name, which isn’t that common. I haven’t played Scrabble in a while, but “Z” and “Q” are the high-value letters, because they’re rare. You know, Z is an ancient letter, not like some of the newer ones.

There’s the ancient Greek letter, Zeta. There’s the ancient Hebrew letter Zayin. There’s the Arabic letter Zayn.

Pretty ancient. I mean, those are some of the oldest languages around.

Compare that to the letter “W”. I mean, did you ever think about it? I’m sure you haven’t; I’m sure you don’t have that much time on your hands. But “W” is literally just two u’s together. It’s only been its own letter since about 1,400.

In other words, “Z” is a serious letter. An important letter, if I do say so myself. Zipper. Zinger. Frozen. Frazzled. All the fun words. Maze. Daze. Haze.

But I regret to report to you, the letter “zed” — or “zee” as our American friends call it — is now banned.

Because for some reason, the Russians have been putting the letter “Z” on their military vehicles in the Ukraine war. They call that the letter “Ze” in Russian, I think. 

Depending on who you ask, it means different things. Za pobedu — to victory. Zapadny — means west.

Whatever. It’s a symbol.

Well, I regret to inform you that the letter Zed, Zee, Zeta, Ze, whatever you call it, is now zapped. It’s frozen. I know, that sounds zany. But it’s true.

It started with what I thought was a joke:

I call on all states to criminalize the use of the ‘Z’ symbol as a way to publicly support Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. ’Z’ means Russian war crimes, bombed out cities, thousands of murdered Ukrainians. Public support of this barbarism must be forbidden.

— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) March 29, 2022

This is a tweet from the foreign minister of Ukraine.

And I tell you all of this, I tell you about how the letter “Z” is being banned, and anyone with a trace of Russia in them is being purged and cancelled, to contrast it with the total willful blindness towards China — a country with exactly a 10x bigger population than Russia, and 10x bigger GDP.

And whatever you can say about Putin — violent, brutal, authoritarian, imperialistic — whatever you can say about Putin, you can say ten fold about China. Whether it’s their treatment of Tibet, or Hong Kong, or the Muslim Uyghurs, or their threats to Taiwan, or their espionage and undermining of us, frankly.

And yet, we treat China as an honoured guest.

GUEST: Breitbart editor-at-large Joel Pollak (@JoelPollak on Twitter)

FINALLY: Your letters to me!