Realpolitik Newspeak

Over time, one wonders how original concepts get changed to more ‘pleasant’ sounding words.

Although [Frank Luntz] would claim otherwise, he’s a spin doctor, a smear professional, and a master at misrepresenting policies to sway public opinion. He is the mastermind reframer behind rebranding the estate tax or inheritance tax as the “death tax”* to dissuade people from voting for it. (The “death tax” sounds far more relatable; after all, everyone dies. But not everyone dies with the more than $13 million that’s shielded from taxation upon death, which is the threshold in 2024.) He recommended that Republicans avoid talking about drilling in the Arctic wildlife preserve and instead call the activity energy exploration. He advised that casino gambling be cast as gaming. And he urged that global warming be recast as climate change, because—as he explained to Terry Gross on NPR’s renowned show Fresh Air—the new label “creates less hysteria.”

Cohen, Brian Tyler. Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy (p. 86). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

But Americans aren’t the only ones. The Russians do it, too.

I wonder if George Orwell is turning in his grave.

Need I say more?