Terms like Enemy combatant, Extraordinary rendition, Weapons of mass destruction, double meanings, propaganda, outrageous euphemisms, self-contradictions and plain old lies. More than that, they have become part of our everyday lives to the point where we often use them ourselves without even thinking through their meaning.
Doublespeak is the art of hiding a grisly truth inside a pretty (or at least emotionally neutral) figure of speech. “Enemy combatant.” “Extraordinary rendition.” “Weapons of mass destruction.” In the modern political era, and especially since 9/11, we have become used to the most outrageous euphemisms, self-contradictions and plain old lies. More than that, they have become part of our everyday lives to the point where we often use them ourselves without even thinking through their meaning.
With every doublespeak word there is an intended meaning – what we are supposed to think of when we hear the phrase – and an actual meaning – the grim truth that the phrase covers up. By simply questioning some of these terms we can start to see through the Matrix-like web constructed for us by the politicians and their cohorts in the bought-and-paid for media to the stark reality that lies right in front of our face. Or, to borrow an analogy from another Hollywood movie that is a perfect allegory of our times (They Live), by putting on the glasses we can see through the flowery rhetoric and jargon-laced distractions of the advertisements, political speeches and news reports we're constantly subjected to and see the real messages that underlie them.
With this in mind, I present to you the beginnings of a Doublespeak dictionary. This is a partial list, of course, but hopefully this will get you thinking about the words that are used to describe our world, and how they help to keep us from discovering what's really happening.
“Authority”
Intended meaning: Person whose position commands respect and whose pronouncements are to be taken as self-evidently correct.
Actual meaning: Someone who is to be obeyed unquestioningly at all times and in all situations. Authorities are meant to be contrasted with ordinary citizens (or better yet, “taxpayers”), who are supposed to defer to said authorities in all cases. Whenever there is a conflict between the word of a taxpayer and that of an authority (for example, when a peace officer is accused of brutality or unlawful arrest) the authorities' account is always to be taken as the correct one. Anyone who fails to act in the exact manner prescribed by an authority in any given situation is wrong by definition and deserves whatever punishment is meted out.
See also: Official, leader, representative
“Biotechnology”
Intended meaning: The modification of living organisms by scientific processes for the benefit of humankind.
Actual meaning: The use of technology to tamper with the genomes of plants and animals in order to create hybrid monstrosities for the benefit of well-connected corporations like Monsanto, Syngenta, Cargill and other seed monopolists. Funded and promoted by the Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and other billionaires (who also happen to be heavy investors in the Svalbard doomsday seed vault project), GMOs and other examples of biotech are supposed to reduce farmers' reliance on pesticides, increase crop yields, and create foods that are perfectly safe for humans to consume. In reality, GMOs increase reliance on pesticides, produce no gain in crop yields, and are consistently shown in independent testing to have disastrous health consequences including increased cancer rates and sterility. They are, however, perfect for helping a very few companies to concentrate more and more of the world's food supply in the hands of fewer and fewer individuals, and have so far been spectacularly successful in accomplishing that very goal.
See also: Genetic engineering
“Jobless recovery”
Intended meaning: An economic rebound after a period of hardship in which corporations have managed to increase efficiency through down-sizing and thus require fewer workers.
Actual meaning: An ongoing economic crisis where little has changed but bottom lines in corporate profits and government-manipulated economic indicators. For the average worker who has just lost their job or whose house has been foreclosed on, nothing at all may have changed in their circumstances or in the prospects of them regaining employment, but they may take heart from knowing that the authorities are proclaiming an economic recovery and that the GDP is climbing.
See also: Green shoots
“Peace”
Intended meaning: The end of war; worldwide cooperation; goodwill amongst all.
Actual meaning: The end of opposition to globalism, banksterism and outright tyranny. This is why the idea of peace has been consistently linked to the idea of one world government, including the League of Nations and the United Nations, but implicitly with the other organizations (the WTO, the IMF and World Bank, the BIS, etc.) that expose that world government as the unaccountable tyranny that it is. When a member of the would-be “elite” utters the phrase, be sure to keep in mind that their version of peace looks more like Brave New World than the ending of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.
See also: Nobel Peace Prize
“Quantitative Easing”
Intended meaning: A sensible stimulus measure undertaken by central banking authorities to increase the money supply by buying government securities.
Actual meaning: The deliberate debasement of a currency by turning on the printing press. This measure is especially handy when the international community is in a coordinated race to the bottom by way of a covert currency war that is being ignored by the financial talking heads.
See also: Debt monetization, Hyperinflation, Operation Twist
“Sustainability”
Intended meaning: Equilibrium; living in balance with nature; replacing what is used; etc.
Actual meaning: A two-tier system of brutal, enforced austerity for the masses and opulence for the ruling elite. This system (referred to as “post-industrial society” in official documents) entails the belief that humanity is a cancer on the planet and must be kept in check or else the world will be destroyed. Anything that can be blamed on the day to day activities of humans (especially the myth that carbon dioxide is driving climate change) is emphasized, while true, systemic threats to the future of life on the planet (genetic engineering, geoengineering, nuclear disasters) are ignored completely. Ironically, the true, underlying meaning of sustainable living – being financially self-sufficient, prepared for emergencies, and in good stead with your neighbors – is looked upon as aberrant.
See also: Population control, Global warming, Peak oil
“Terrorist”
Intended meaning: Anyone using violence and terror to achieve a political goal.
Actual meaning: Anyone using violence and terror to achieve a political goal other than that which is desired by the banksters and their political and corporate associates. Thus, Al Qaeda (to the extent that it is not in itself a fictional organization created in a New York courtroom for the purpose of trying Osama Bin Laden in absentia for the African embassy bombings under RICO laws, bolstered by media reporting on its supposed structure and activities) is a terrorist organization when it is operating contrary to presumed US interests (e.g. opposing the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq), but a group of “freedom fighters” when it is working for US interests (e.g. in the overthrow of Gaddafi in Libya or Assad in Syria). In the case of anyone unlucky enough to be killed by Hellfire missiles launched from Predator drones during illegal US drone strikes in areas of Pakistan, Yemen, or anywhere else in the world, they too will automatically and retroactively be classified as terrorists by virtue of having interfered with American military ordinates. By this definition it can also apply to anyone who has ever (or could ever) harbor any opposition to the goals of the ruling class, which is why wearing blue jeans, paying for coffee with cash, smiling, quoting the constitution, voting for third-party political candidates and carrying a driver's license have all been proposed as potential signs of terrorism in official documents from various US government agencies in the past 10 years.
See also: Enemy combatant, insurgent
“Unfunded liabilities”
Intended meaning: A government program which does not yet have funds apportioned to meet its expected obligations.
Actual meaning: A scheme by a power-hungry politician to gain / retain a political office by selling the voters a pipe dream program which is backed up solely by the promise of the debt slavery of subsequent generations yet unborn.
See also: Social security, Medicare
“Weapons of Mass Destruction”
Intended meaning: A device of such destructive power that the mere existence of it is a danger to humanity and the possession of it is in itself a crime.
Actual meaning: Such a device in the hands of an enemy. In the hands of an ally, these devices are suddenly not an imminent danger to the planet and their possession is perfectly justifiable. This applies equally to biological, chemical and nuclear weapons, which provide suitable reason for enemy nations to be invaded and occupied (Iraq's chemical weapons, Iran's potential nuclear weapons). When in American hands, for example, they are only for defensive purposes (America's anthrax and biological weapons stockpile, Israel's undeclared and uninspected stockpile of nuclear arms). In cases where the use of prohibited weapons by an ally state is confirmed and documented (white phosphorous in Fallujah or in Gaza, for instance), use of such weapon is in fact perfectly reasonable and nothing to get upset about.
See also: Red line, Smoking gun