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Posted by igottaknow on Mar-18-2004 16:35:

political double speak

I've come to know an love Political Double Speak or invented words by political leaders and their offical spin doctors. I must say that the Bush adminstration with the likes of dearly departed Ari Flisher and Rummy overshadow everyone else (too bad i can't remember most of them from the daily press meeting during the iraq war). Instead of having a debate about it, let's post you favorites with their appropriate translation. I'll start us off.

Human Intelligence = Spies

Collaterial Damage = Innocent civilians killed in a military operation.

Evil Doers = dubya only recogizes two types of ppl in the world, good guy and bad guys, this phrase is a synonym for the later.

Posted by tathi on Mar-19-2004 05:51:

i think you have newspeak and doublethink mixed up

Freedom and Terrorism are also good examples of Bush newspeak

Posted by Dervish on Mar-19-2004 11:45:

Re: political double speak

quote:
Originally posted by igottaknow
Evil Doers = dubya only recogizes two types of ppl in the world, good guy and bad guys, this phrase is a synonym for the later.

That is too true!!!! I rember an interview with a captain of an aircraft carrier. And he too said things like "bad guys" "good guys" and "were gonna decimate the IRAQI army to free the IRAQI people" all too often. Excelent way to describe a complicated situation.

Posted by igottaknow on Mar-20-2004 02:38:

COALITION OF THE WILLING = countries that have been pressured or bribbed by the US to come along for the ride. I thought coalition by definition was parties that join together willingly (so isn't that a double positive like "more better")

tati: probably more appropriatly labeled as political/news-media jargon

Posted by tathi on Mar-20-2004 02:46:

i thought you were making a reference to Orwellian newspeak

freedom fighters and terrorists are again misnomers

Posted by igottaknow on Mar-20-2004 03:07:

quote:
Originally posted by tathi
i thought you were making a reference to Orwellian newspeak

freedom fighters and terrorists are again misnomers

I was but it takes a good memory to think of pharses that match. On the balance this type of jargon is for the same purpose as double speak, to put the desired spin on that you want.For example there are a lot of military terms for killing that are designed to make it sound less offensive. Here are a few:

SUPRESS OR NEUTRALIZE A THREAT = kill the enemy

SOFTEN THE ENEMY = bomb the shit out of them in the hopes of killing as many of them as you can.

Posted by mps242 on Mar-20-2004 03:35:

"transfer case" - aluminum coffins used to transport dead soldier back to the US.

Posted by imokruok on Mar-20-2004 05:04:

I don't know that the terms we're listing here are double speak at all. They're the actual technical terms - it's the media that changes them and puts them into laymen's terms.

But here's one to add to the "list": anticipatory self-defense = the actual legal term for the Iraq (and Afghan) war.

Posted by igottaknow on Mar-20-2004 05:11:

SHOCK AND AWE = i never understood what it really meant, but it reminds me of the first time i saw a naked girl in a horror flick. Maybe it was to compare the shock and delight of watching 4th of July fireworks to being carpet bombed by b-52s.