Own Your Words - Understand Others

George Orwell once wrote that “if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought”. Six decades later our political prose is as insidious as ever, with a large population of Americans kept politically illiterate mostly due to the propaganda of Fox News and other right wing organizations as well as the country’s inept leadership which brings disinterest to many citizens of the United States of America.

We live in a free land where less than half of our citizens exercise their precious right to vote, hmm.

Political platitudes and/or euphemisms used to describe commonly understood concepts so that they align with one’s political viewpoint. Sometimes the political agenda embedded in the phrase is obvious though more often these terms are used with ulterior motives:
• to make a reasonable concept look or seem to be unacceptable
• to make an unacceptable concept seem reasonable, if not desirable.

Frequently our countrymen women are not even aware of the political undertones implanted in the phrases and words we use because we are not the one who orchestrates the deception. They are handed to the 24 hour news cycle at such a feverish pace that these euphemisms find their way into our every day talking points with an easy stealth.

An example of some of these terms recently used in our political discourse:

“Obamacare”
“Death Panels”
“2nd amendment remedies”
“Job Killing Regulation”
“Job Killing Tax”
“Welfare Tax”
“Pro-Choice”
“Pro-Life”

“Energy Recovery”
“Undocumented Workers”
“Illegal Aliens”
“Enhanced Interrogation Techniques”
“Support the Troops”
“Axis of Evil”
“Surge”
“Peacekeeping Mission”
“Information extraction”
“Surgical strikes”
“Collateral damage”
“Extraordinary rendition”
“Tort reform”
“Social Security reform”
“Medicare reform”
“Welfare reform”
“Judicial reform”
“Fiscal Restraint”
“Ethics reform”
"Revenue Enhancer"


As previously stated, the twisted language above is used to deliberately disguise, distort, or reverse the true meaning of words. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms (e.g., "downsizing" for layoffs), making the truth less unpleasant, without denying its nature. It may also be deployed as intentional ambiguity, or reversal of meaning (for example, naming a state of war "peacekeeping"). In such cases, doublespeak disguises the nature of the truth, producing a vacuum in true communication.

Knowledge is power and we the people need to educated and be fully informed.