Against Euphemism

Here’s a handy translation guide for people who have the misfortune to be exposed to U.S. media and government propaganda. Some of these noxious obfuscations of reality have spread to other nations, whose rulers and elites find them useful for their misrule. (Perhaps dishonest people think alike at times. Certainly people with the same or similar class and/or political interests do.)

“Leader:” Boss, either of a corporation or country. Also “world leaders” for country political bosses. (On the other hand, heads of labor unions are usually “labor bosses.” That’s virtually the only time the word “boss” appears in U.$. media, to refer to union officials. As if THEY dominate and control workers. You’d think the workers all worked for the unions, not for the REAL bosses.)

“Leadership:” Power or domination, as in “American leadership,” or “corporate leadership.”

“The international system:” U.S. world domination.

“Responsible stakeholder” in “the international system:” A nation that bows to U.S. aims and wishes and conforms to U.S. policies. So for example, for Russia and China to behave as “responsible stakeholders” in U.S. policy towards Iran, they have to go along with U.S. punitive sanctions and the U.S. drive to destroy Iran’s nuclear program. Another example: Russia has to meekly submit to the expansion of NATO to its very borders.

U.S. “intervention:” invasions or bombings by the U.S.

“Assertive [U.S.] foreign policy:” U.S. aggression, bullying, intimidation.

“Isolationism:” Wondering if maybe the U.S. shouldn’t be so aggressive and imperialist, but not couched in such “anti-American” terms of course.

“Anti-Americanism:” Any criticism of the U.S. that is not on pragmatic but pro-imperialist grounds, but instead has a moral basis.

“Anti-communism:” Frequently used as code for fascism. So when the U.S. “supports anti-communism in El Salvador,” for example, it is supporting fascist death squadders.

“Western democracy:” Bourgeois class dictatorship with more than one political party in which carefully controlled elections are staged that are designed to make meaningful change or challenge to the existing order impossible.

“Human rights abuses:” Torture and murder by government agents. Government atrocities against the people they rule. Lumped together with other forms of repression, oppression, and state surveillance. By this mechanism, mass torture and murder in the U.S. empire gets minimized, while at the same time Soviet harassment and persecution of dissidents was implicitly equated with torture and murder by the use of the same phrase, “human rights abuses.” The term is still rampant today. Its vagueness acts as a thick fog obscuring the crimes of state criminals. Like many catch-all terms, it muddies instead of clarifies, obscures rather than identifies, and as a mushy generality it narcotizes moral outrage. It is designed to neuter moral condemnation so as to make “advocates” for “human rights” respectable guests in the foyers of the chambers of power- which is as far as its spokespeople ever get. (Unless they’re totally phony sellouts like Samantha Powers.)

“Enhanced interrogation techniques:” U.S. torture.

“Intelligence agency:” Secret police organization. (In Western parlance, “secret police” is only used to refer to the secret police of enemy/adversary states.)

“Law enforcement and intelligence agencies:” Secret police. “Law enforcement” also refers to regular police, who are not law enforcers in any neutral sense, but enforcers of the existing social order. They selectively enforce SOME laws, and also make false arrests under cover of “law,” bringing false charges to suppress/repress low social status people and political activists who are acting outside establishment-approved boundaries.

“Security service:” See “intelligence agency.”

“Homeland Security:” Domestic repression.

“Corrections:” Imprisonment.

“Correctional Facility:” Prison or jail.

“Detention Facility:” Prison or jail. Less euphemistic than “correctional facility.”

“Housing unit” in a “correction facility:” Cell.

“Detainee:” Prisoner.

“Counterterrorism:” U.S. and other state terrorism and repression.

“Special Forces:” U.S. military death squads.

“Defense:” Military, offense, war.

“Justice:” Imprisonment, execution, or assassination.

“Core American values:” the mendacious and false grand rhetoric of U.S. imperialism. U.S. propaganda, in short, designed to con the world’s population, including Americans.

“Border security:” Hunting down poor would-be immigrants, including murdering alleged rock-throwers in Mexico shot by U.S. Border Patrol agents. Also systematic harassment and seizure of electronic devices of dissidents when attempting to enter the U.S., including U.S. citizens.

“Issue:” Problem. As in “there are issues to overcome,” or “imprisoning people without trial comes with its own set of issues.”

“Spin:” Distortion. This is a term used by American establishment propagandists to refer to politicians’ feeding them versions of events that put the politician or regime in a more favorable or less negative light than the actual facts might. It could also apply to what these so-called “journalists” do too, but of course they don’t apply it to themselves. “Spin” is rather like special pleading. Trial lawyers do something similar in court, especially in opening and closing statements, where they put forth a story that omits, downplays, glosses over, or explains away facts harmful to their case, and that highlights, exaggerates, or invents facts that are favorable.

Obama’s “Secure Communities” Program: A repression program designed to spread fear and insecurity in immigrant communities targeted for deportation. (This one’s Orwellian.)

“Conservative:” Reactionary.

“Ultraconservative:” Fascist.

“Liberal:” This one has various meanings. In the mouths of “conservatives,” it means “devil.” Also a label used for hand-wringing sugar-coated reactionary type who sheds crocodile tears for victims of the system they defend. Can also denote a well-meaning would-be reformer who ultimately sells out or provides the system with humane cover. Useful for preventing people from becoming militant or taking action instead of relying on bourgeois politicians to rescue them.

“Mistakes,” or the even harsher “Blunders,” in reference to U.S. foreign policy actions and policies: CRIMES.

“Troubled:” Meaning something is horribly wrong. For example, when referring to some American police department with a record of chronic brutality and regular murders of (mostly black or Hispanic) people, the New York Times inevitably uses the adjective “troubled,” a particularly noxious euphemism to employ in such cases. Or a thoroughly corrupt or inept government agency will be called “troubled.” Like something is bothering them, or they have problems not of their own making. They mean well, they just can’t seem to get it together. So the Federal Mineral Management Agency, a body as corrupt as any on earth, whose employees partied and slept with corporate people they were supposed to be regulating (but didn’t regulate at all) is “troubled,” not “extremely corrupt” or “(literally) in bed with those it was supposed to regulate.” Rarely, if an organization completely breaks down, it will be called “dysfunctional,” like it’s just functioning badly.

“Disadvantaged:” Poor and usually oppressed.

“Inequality:” Grotesque accumulation of massive wealth by a tiny minority of people accompanied by erosion of economic

“Bias:” Racism.

“The most fortunate among us:” The rich.

And we mustn’t forget the number one culprits who purvey this brainwashing propaganda, who have their own euphemism, “The mainstream media:” The corporate oligarchy’s propaganda system.*I9

BONUS EPITHET. This one’s not a euphemism, but necessary to know: “Conspiracy theorist:” Someone who exposes the crimes of the U.S. state, particularly of the fascistic, criminal deep state.

See also "Against Euphemism II."