Double Speak

While reading my newspaper this morning I got stuck on page three, not because there was anything of particularly interest on that page. Rather, I was hit in the face with doublespeak. Double speak is saying something , uh, "differently". It is language which pretends to communicate but doesn't, language which makes the bad seem good, the negative seem positive, the unpleasant seem unattractive, or at least tolerable. It's a very common form of language these days because we aren't supposed to upset anyone with normal language. Political correctness requires that humans do that. When George Bush used to say the "Iraqi War is about peace", he was double speaking. When the media writes that a person is an "undocumented alien" it is double speaking about people illegal in a country. You get the idea.

Today's newspaper doublespeak came from the U.S. government in the form of a story about "The Patriot Act" and from an advertiser who had a newspaper ad promoting its desire to sell "pre-owned vehicles". In the case of the Patriot Act, a law George Bush rammed through the U.S. Congress in 2001 immediately after the 911 attack on the U.S. by the late Osama and company, we have a law that is anything but patriotic. It lets the government check citizen's mail, wiretap phones and intercept e mail, enables spying techniques that utilize what would ordinarily be unconstitutional etc.....all because it is supposed to "protect" Americans from terrorism. I hardly think that pushing aside basic constitutional rights is patriotic, but one might not know that if just hearing the name of that awful law (which may be voided this year).

The second example I found on page three, "preowned vehicle sale" is a euphemism for what most people call "used car sales". I guess the advertiser thinks that by calling a used car a preowned one, he or she an more easily convince the buyer to purchase it. But putting a dress on a gorilla doesn't make her a debutante.

As I read those two examples of double speak It reminded me of quite a few common ones I have read in the newspaper the past few days. I think one of the sad side effects of the electronic communication boom is the ease with which bad usage appears in what y used to be protected sources- professional writings. For you and I to use double speak is nothing new or harmful to society. but when trusted mediums use it, the double speak tends to propagandize us, often unknowingly (because people today, sedated by a barrage of nonsense in media, often don't think about what they hear and read as former generations once did).

Here are a few doublespeak remarks (with translations) I have read or seen in media this past week.

* Diversity- taking away what the haves have earned and giving it to the have nots because "everyone is entitled to share in wealth"
* Death tax- the tax on the estate one inheritance, once called "The Estate Tax"
* Freedom fighter- Americans call their soldiers this when they invade (as in Afghanistan), yet Americans call nations from other countries who invade "terrorists"
* Vertically deployed anti personal device action- dropping bombs on people
* Regime change necessity- advocating kicking out of office the current head (usually a dictator who has become unpopular) of state of the country by protest or violent action
* Creation science- a phony doctrine that religion uses and promotes as being science.
* New and improved- a commercial product that is smaller in size but is more expensive.

Ok that's enough. You can find more double speak speak in your own communication medium. Hmmmm I think maybe even in my babble here. But don't use a
"vertically deployed anti personal device action" against me for writing this junk. If you do I only give you "new and improved" nonsense to read.