Thought it’d be nice to have a thread that illustrates current and historical examples of doublespeak and newspeak.
Here’s a blatent one that really irks me:
Notice how most municipalities now label their local offices as ‘Customer Service Centers’ as if the ‘customers’ have alternatives to choose from for their ‘services’ which their ‘customer’ are forced to use.
Here’s a more subtle one which is most ikely just a coincidence:
The name of our manchurin president, Barack Hussein Obama II seems to be an attempt to desensitise andf confuse the populace. Is it a coincidence that his middle name is that of the former leader of Iraq? Is it another coincidence that his last name closely resembles that of the former most wanted man? Notice that the only differnce in Obama and Osama is BS.
What other examples of doublespeak or newspeak are you aware of?
The names of congressional bills are for the most part doublespeak.
As a rule of thumb a congressional bill does the opposite of what it titles claim. e.g. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act actually attacks patients and increases costs. I recall back in Cato U 2011 one of the speakers (Charlotte Twight) brought this up and the more I think about it the more it seems true.
Regarding Obama’s name–well yes, it is a mere coincidence. Saddam Hussein joined the Ba’ath party a few years before Obama’s birth, so he wasn’t exactly a big name in international politics (though he was involved with an unsuccessful US-backed coup in the 1960s). Hussein is a pretty popular Arab surname. Another US-backed terrorist, Osama, was engaging in politics while Obama was still in college. I don’t see this as an attempt to desensitize or confuse the populace; instead, Obama is the ultimate symbol of affirmative action politics–a completely unqualified candidate for the position of president. Along with Reagan and George H.W. Bush, he is yet another president supporting terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda (this time in Libya).
I would say one example of newspeak is “green initiatives” which mostly concern government intervention limiting people’s choices that might affect the environment. The unintended consequences of this intervention usually results in more waste and pollution and less protection of private property (and thus “the environment”).
The eco-fanatics also seem to forgive freshwater pollution and air pollution because of global warming. So in their crusdae to help the environment they ignore the most important of the issues. Thanks 30 Rock, Jon Stewart, and GE!
All of the usual names on there. Why and how did Jesse Jackson Jr. become a member of the house? He rants about the ‘rights of kids to have laptops and cell phones’ on the floor. Like a lunatic he thinks he can add rights to the constitution willy nilly. So that counts as obfuscation and newspeak right?
