Doublespeak: The Art of Lying
What is it?
Doublespeak is language designed to evade responsibility and is designed to mislead while pretending not to. In other words it is a method of lying commonly used by powerful people to get what they want. We can use it in our everyday lives to manipulate and control people. Along with Machiavellianism Doublespeak can be an extremely powerful tool in social situations.
The four types
Euphemisms: These are words or phrases used to avoid a distasteful reality. Examples include using "passed away" instead of "died" or "big boned" for "fat". Toilet paper became bathroom tissue, used cars became previously owned transportation, and constipation became occasional irregularity.
Jargon: This is the specialized language of a trade or profession. It is useful for communication within a specific field. However, using jargon outside of that context can be doublespeak. For example, describing a computer keyboard key as a "Catastrophically Buckling Compression Column Switch and Actuator" to a friend would be unnecessary, but it is appropriate to use that descriptor in a patent.
Gobbledygook or bureaucratese: This type involves piling on words to overwhelm the audience. Politicians often use bureaucratese when they are forced to comment on something they do not want to comment on.
Inflated language: Inflated language is designed to make the simple seem complex or to give an air of importance to people, things, or situations. Saying "I’m currently economically inactive due to being offered an early retirement opportunity as a result of my previous employer’s human resource redundancy elimination initiative” instead of “I’m unemployed because the company was firing people and I got fired" is an example of inflated language
How we can use it
Implementation of doublespeak can be used for manipulation, avoiding responsibility, and making yourself seem more impressive. If you are High Inhib this is a positive because it gives you more opportunity to choose the right language in order to implement doublespeak even better.
Hope someone finds this useful, first post so don't be too critical.
