Thursday, August 25, 2005

New American newspeak dictionary

Academic freedom: ideological affirmative action
Accountable: not accountable
*Active denial system: crowd control heat ray gun
Balanced: 1) not balanced, biased 2) to present two unequal positions as if they were equal
Biased: information that refutes the beliefs of the person making the claim of bias
Bipartisan: agreeing to do what conservatives want done; not to be confused with two sides of a political dispute compromising to come to a mutually beneficial position
Capital account surplus: trade deficit
Clear: not clear
Collateral damage: civilian casualty
Communist: bogeyman
Conservative: liberal, patriotic, pro-American, Good, Us
Crop protection products: pesticides
Death tax: estate tax
**Demonizing: sharply criticizing something that I approve of
Department of Defense: War Department
Detainee: prisoner
Disposition matrix: a secret process of deliberation to sort who the president wants to secretly kill, secretly rendition, or secretly put in prison indefinitely without charges.Education: indoctrination
**Elitist: someone who knows more than I do
Embassy: imperial palace
Energy independence: ownership or control of resource rich regions; not to be mistaken for independence from non-renewable and/or foreign energy sources
Enhanced interrogation technique: torture
Extraordinary rendition: kidnap
Faith-based initiative: tax payer funded religion
Free market: a market that is free of legal restriction that is able to use any means necessary to generate a profit, preferably by establishing a monopoly and eliminating the market
Freedom fighter: terrorist
Free speech area: chained off enclosure where protesters are kept out of sight and ear shot
Global democracy: global hegemony
*Hazardous fuels: trees (according to the Community Protection and Hazardous Fuels Reduction Act)
Healthy: not healthy
Homicide: suicide
Indoctrination: education
International Peace Operations Association: mercenary trade association
Junk science: sound science
Lawfully coerce: illegally torture
Left-wing hater: Any individual, regardless of where their views fall across the political spectrum, who (in many cases) accurately criticizes the policies of a Republican president.
Liberal: Communist/Socialist, Fascist, anti-American, Evil, Them
Luntzspeak: environmental Newspeak crafted by pollster Frank Luntz
Maximum flexibility: Exemption from the rule of law
Misleading: not misleading; pointing out that the person making the charge is obfuscating, which is to say, misleading
News: propaganda
Office of Special Plans: the relaunched Office of Strategic Influence after it was "closed"
Office of Strategic Influence: Pentagon propaganda dept. with the specific goal of spreading disinformation regarding Iraq favorable to an invasion
Partisan: a person who disagrees with someone or something for legitimate non-partisan reasons, and/or a person who is not partisan like the person making the accusation
***People of faith: churchgoers who vote our way
Politically correct: used to describe terms that are in fact, not politically corrrect, while using a politically correct euphemism
Pre-emptive attack: unprovoked invasion
Presidential post-acquittal detention power: Un-Constitutional "power" of imprisoning someone indefinitely after that person has been aquitted of the charges that are supposed to justify their being held indefinitely
****Preventing voter fraud: disenfranchising poor and minority potential voters
Propaganda: true, but politically damaging information
Prudent post-primary adjustment: To abandon your stated principles and values, and even previous votes, in order to appear centrist, even if the "centrist" position taken constitutes an assault on core American values.
Public diplomacy: propaganda
Tendentious: not tendentious, pointing out that the person making the charge is being tendentious; the cry of the relativist, indignant at reality being described as reality
Traitor: whistle-blower
*Radiation enhancement device: neutron bomb
Reform: to eliminate or roll-back existing legislation
Rejectionist: insurgent
Reporter compensation: payoff
Sound science: junk science
Strategic redeployment: troop withdrawal
Terrorist surveillance program: warrantless domestic spying
Transparency: secrecy
Treason: dissent
Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Operations: Terrorist training camp
White House Iraq Group: White House propaganda group charged with manufacturing consent for a war with Iraq

Blogger's Note - This is a work in progress for me. I'm going to be adding words to the list as I come across them. Suggestions are welcome.

*Taken from Wayne Grytting's Z Mag column. Grytting is the author of American Newspeak: The Mangling of Meaning for Power and Profit
**Taken from the Dictionary of Fashionable Nonsense
***Taken from Talking Right by Geoffrey Nunberg
****Taken from Aristotle and an Aardvark go to Washington by Cathcart and Klein

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