Reaction to Doublespeak by William Lutz

          Doublespeak is used to make something negative appear positive, or at least more positive than the truth. It hides the whole ugly truth and only lets people see or hear what the speaker wants them to see or hear. Without realizing it, we use doublespeak in our daily lives to hide, to trick or to mislead other people.

          Lutz writes that there are at least 4 kinds of doublespeak. First is when you use a euphemism to make something appear as something else. An example given is when you substitute the word ''killing' with ' unlawful or arbitrary deprivation of life'. The purpose of this substitution is to make killing seem less cruel and more political. It is used to hide a harsh reality.

          The second is when you use a specialized jargon to confuse other people and also to mislead. Various professions have different terms that they use in their fields. Scientists, lawyers, mathematicians and politicians have their own "languages" to make it easier for them to communicate with each other. But when the intent is to use these jargon because you know other people will not fully understand them, it becomes a form of doublespeak. Many of us can relate that legal jargon used by lawyers is a huge effort to understand. Most people would just give up or let go of an argument because they cannot understand the terms in an agreement. That is precisely the intent of people who use doublespeak.

         The third is to use as many words, terms and jargon in one sentence, making it too long and incomprehensible. Often, when a sentence is too long, people forget the first part of what they read and thus do not understand correctly what is being presented to them. When they do not understand, they cannot complain.

         The last is somewhat related to the first. It is when you make something ordinary seem extraordinary, to make it seem impressive and important. The example given is when you refer to car mechanics as ' automotive internists or using 'pre-owned' instead of 'used' cars. This aims to highlight the positive side and to try to do away with the negative connotations of words.

        Truly, doublespeak is very difficult to distinguish from the truth, especially since it has already been integrated in our society. It has become so common that many people do not see it as a lie but a downplay of negativity. We have to be careful with doublespeak that aim to mislead and trick people into doing something they will regret. In addition, we also have to avoid using doublespeak for ourselves.