Published on 2024-10-09 by Teagan Pacheco
Hello fellow prospectors and good morning. Toastmasters has a unique style that offers an experience you will remember with a diverse range of feedback (euphemistic). This transformative public speaking course will unlock your boundless potential and elevate your oratory skills to unprecedented heights (inflated language). Despite the feeling of an enhanced interrogation while giving a speech (jargon), we prognosticators seek to peer into the morrow for guidance regarding eventualities (gobbledygook). Today, I will inform you about Doublespeak, the deliberately euphemistic, ambiguous, or obscure language commonly found in marketing, government, and flattery.
Language is the principal method of human communication. Our language ironically says a lot about us and our motives. Doublespeak is used to deceive its audience by impersonating actual, helpful communication when the words selected don’t and escape responsibility through language against its real purpose. There are four types of doublespeak. Euphemism is an inoffensive or soothing phrase that avoids raw, objectionable, or distasteful realities. Jargon is the scholarly or technical vocabulary specific to professional groups like engineers, lawyers, and doctors. Gobbledygook or “word salad” is when a representative will answer a question with big words, long sentences, and uneven flow. Finally, inflated language is composed of exaggerated carnage or overestimated pleasantries.
My favorite examples of doublespeak come from our government and military. Before 1947, the United States had the War Department. War is hostile, ugly, and grotesque. However, on September 18th, 1947, it was rebranded as the Department of Defense. Defense is fortified, rational, and responsible. The 1979 film Apocalypse Now propagated the iconic order to “service the targets with extreme prejudice.” Unappealingly, this translates to “kill anything that isn’t us.” Similarly, the term ‘collateral damage’ refers to the unintended killing and wounding of civilians or damage to buildings.
All of us are citizens, consumers, and providers. Understandably, we want what we need for ourselves and our families. When searching for such solutions in a product or service, companies and marketers contrive visuals, slogans, and jingles to attract potential customers. Consider “puffery advertising,” a commercial law term regarding an exaggerated description, such as BMW’s "The Ultimate Driving Machine," Wheaties’ "The Breakfast of Champions," or Gillette’s "The Best a Man Can Get." No one can verify these claims because of their subjective nature. This inflated style of doublespeak aims to persuade you that such a product is revered, high-caliber, and worth the price.
When seeking highly technical answers, you’re inclined to listen to someone with confidence through their academic background or title. I work in information technology and have witnessed plenty of gobbledygook and jargon used during technical presentations. Hollow words like “cutting-edge,” “value-add,” “next-gen,” “robust,” and “mission critical” are all tropes intended to strike your curiosity with these exciting expectations. As doublespeak, gobbledygook may either substitute for a speaker's lack of knowledge or insight about a subject, or it may once again serve to confuse.
You might wonder what impact doublespeak can have on your life, and the answer may reveal itself as uncomfortably omnipresent. I believe in agency and self-determination; however, are my choices, insights, and opinions truly my own? Have I been meekly indoctrinated into becoming a stalwart for a manufacturer, product, or newsfeed? I don’t ask these questions to concuss your existence or disturb rewarding beliefs, but only to ensure you hold self-made convictions toward your sentiments. This could be as benign as the cheese you like on your sandwich.
Notwithstanding, a harmful dogma could go as far as your cooking methods, voting, historical accuracy, dieting, taxes, or mental health. I harbor no ambivalence toward your personal beliefs, but we must fully understand our beliefs through our independent research and inquiry. Don’t allow yourself to be inculcated with baseless assertions. Believe what you want - just believe it because you found it intrinsically valuable.
We must be vigilant in a world with instant access to carefully engineered information. As despondent as it may sound, not everybody has your best interest in mind. George Orwell, the British novelist, said, “But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” Doublespeak has been used for as long as language has been around, and, frustratingly, it won’t leave us. I suggest identifying the speaker’s intent with careful listening and healthy skepticism. Embody the clear and honest demeanor you would like from the people around you through transparency and accountability. Harness your critical thinking skills and ask pertinent questions to garner tangible answers.
I’d like to share two examples of Doublespeak for your analysis. In 2002, George W. Bush said, “I just want you to know that when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace.” In Ben Shapiro’s book Brainwashed, he says, “Only at a university is a riot an "uprising," a police officer a “thug,” and a criminal a “hero.” Pay attention out there.