[Nettime-bold] Newspeak

Political language...is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. ~ George Orwell

One of the primary reasons we have seen a steady erosion of liberty since at least 1861 is that statists have created an endless stream of words and phrases to conceal their crimes, discredit freedom, and promote their own twisted ideology. During the last decade especially, there was an explosion of politically correct words, phrases and names, and our liberties suffered accordingly. In politics, language is crucial, because whoever controls the language controls the terms of the debate.

Walter Block has examined a dozen or so of these new words in depth, and Jörg Guido Hülsmann has done some good work on how the State uses signs and language to achieve its goals. But perhaps no one has better understood how language can be used as a political weapon than George Orwell. His "The Principles of Newspeak," an appendix to 1984, is fascinating, disturbing, and astoundingly prescient (he wrote it in 1948).

Although we can usually recognize Newspeak when statists use it on us, and libertarian writers point out the use of a single word or phrase from time to time, to my knowledge, we do not have anything like an Oldspeak/Newspeak dictionary or translation guide. As Newspeak begins to replace Oldspeak, I thought it might be helpful for us to have such a resource so we’ll be able to tell what everyone else is talking about.

Thus, I am pleased to present the first edition of The Oldspeak/Newspeak Translation Guide. Many of the Oldspeak words sound almost quaint, and hearken back to a simpler time when people were more easygoing and not so easily offended. Newspeak words are generally listed in the order in which they first appeared, or are grouped together by subject. For the proper pronunciation of Newspeak words, listen to how Linda Wertheimer pronounces them on NPR’s "All Things Considered" (you will hear them a lot on NPR).

Oldspeak	Newspeak
an armed gang	government
a mob	voters
subject	citizen
serf	taxpayer
living off the taxpayers	public service
murder	war
war	defending our values
the Founding Fathers	dead white European males, slave owners
War for Southern Independence	Civil War
enslaving free men	freeing the slaves
America’s biggest murderer and enslaver	Honest Abe, the Great Emancipator
world’s biggest murderer	Uncle Joe
the day that FDR became complicit in the deaths of 2,348 Americans	a day that will live in infamy
men who marched obediently off to war	the greatest generation
Department of War	Department of Defense
slavery	Selective Service
killing civilians	pacification
dead civilians	collateral damage
The School of the Americas	The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation
Ponzi scheme	Social Security
a communist	an agrarian reformer
Ronald Reagan	an actor
Warren Beatty	presidential material
bums	the homeless
crazy	mentally ill
factory for low-skilled workers	sweatshop
selling inexpensive goods to Americans	dumping
charging the market price	price gouging
one who opposes programs that classify people by race	racist
one who opposes tax-funded programs for homosexuals	homophobe
opposing tax-funded art	censorship
a dead constitution	a living document
become more liberal	grow
Negro, colored, black	African-American, people of color
Mexican	Hispanic
Hispanic	Latino
Indians	Native Americans, indigenous peoples
jungle	rainforest
swamp	wetland
vermin	endangered species
czar	czar
major pharmaceutical supplier	drug kingpin
lack of discipline	Attention Deficit Disorder
the fraternal twin of methamphetamine	Ritalin
heroin-addicted rock singer who blew his brains out	spokesperson for a generation
burn	desecrate
individualist	separatist
professional assassins	Hostage Rescue Team
enormous cattle futures profits	beginner’s luck
what the Dixie Mafia did to Clinton’s enemies	putting people first
better put some ice on that	I feel your pain
socialism	Third Way
39.6%	their fair share
tax	contribution
spend	invest
rent	property tax
church	compound
incinerating children	stopping child abuse
growing government	reinventing government
fascism	public-private partnership
liberal women	soccer moms
conservative men	angry white males
voters expressing their wishes	throwing a temper tantrum
the era of big government is just beginning	the era of big government is over
a reduction in the planned growth rate of spending	a spending cut
moderately conservative	extremist
fiscally conservative	mean-spirited
reducing the growth rate of school lunch programs	taking food from the mouths of children
the cry of a modern-day Paul Revere	They’re coming for the children!
one who opposes a strong government	fascist
caving to Democrats	bipartisan
staunch conservatives	the extra chromosome right wing
Third World plumbing	low-flush toilets
500,000 slaves	200 million slaves
housing project	affordable housing
food stamps	WIC
welfare	Earned Income Tax Credit
welfare recipients	clients
racial discrimination	Affirmative Action
quotas	goals
homogenous opinion	diversity
approval of everything	tolerance
avoiding unprofitable areas	redlining
slouching towards Gomorrah	building a bridge to the 21^st century
collectivism	it takes a village
FBI files in the White House	a bureaucratic snafu
one of Clinton’s former sex partners	stalker, bimbo, slut
kiss and tell	bimbo eruptions
everyone but the Clintons	a vast, right-wing conspiracy
oral sex, phone sex	a relationship
aspirin factory	chemical weapons plant
is	(it depends)
perjury, obstruction of justice	defending the Constitution
the 42^nd white President	the first black President
Clinton’s values	our values
affordable handgun	Saturday Night Special
rifle	assault rifle
effective bullets	cop-killer bullets
people violence	gun violence
gun owner	gun nut, barrel sucker
the NRA	the gun lobby
unconstitutional gun laws	common sense gun laws
guns	illicit small arms
100 women	1,000,000 moms
ugly woman	feminist
infanticide	a medical procedure
irresponsible fathers	deadbeat dads
workplace where a lot of jokes are told	hostile work environment
he, his	she, her
women	womyn
history	herstory
marriage	slavery
admire	ogle
touch	paw, grope
consensual sex	rape
poor	low-income
above-market wage	living wage
charity	giving back to the community
ignoring profitable investment opportunities	socially responsible investing
old person	senior citizen
figurehead	minority-owned
blind	visually impaired
deaf	hearing impaired
handicapped	differently abled
retarded	mentally challenged
midget, dwarf	vertically challenged
fat	famine resistant
politically correct	Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher
reeducation camp	sensitivity training, diversity training
Washington Bullets	Washington Wizards
St. John’s Redmen	St. John’s Red Storm
Miami (Ohio) Redskins	Miami (Ohio) RedHawks
squaw	(some other name)
genetically modified food	Frankenfood
food grown with manure	organic food
legalized theft	taxation, civil asset forfeiture, eminent domain, condemnation
fingerprint machine	inkless scanning device
hate thought, celebrating Columbus Day	hate crime
one who keeps what he earns	tax cheat
suburbia	urban sprawl
timber that’s way overdue to be harvested	old growth forest
central planning	smart growth
subway	light rail
undeveloped land	greenspace
vacant lot	passive park
badlands	national monument
desolate wasteland of frozen tundra	Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
government schools	public schools
more NEA members	smaller class sizes
zero common sense	zero tolerance
kitchen knife, Tweety Bird key chain, paper gun, french fry	weapons
private hard money	counterfeit money
fiat money	hard currency
large bank transactions	money laundering
private loans to high-risk borrowers	predatory lending, loan sharking
government loans to high-risk borrowers	student loans, SBA loans, etc.
shakedown	reparations
urban renewal by government and black people	empowerment zone
urban renewal by private industry and white people	gentrification
liberal	neoconservative
empire, hegemony	national greatness
liberal Republican	maverick, principled
a free planet	the Death Star
loss of freedom	reform
restricting free speech	campaign finance reform
campaign contributors	special interests
socialism lite	compassionate conservatism
maturity, seriousness	gravitas
tax expatriate	freeloader
welfare recipients	working families
the phenomenon that some people can afford better technology than others	the digital divide
successful company	monopoly
successful businessmen	robber barons
competitive	anti-competitive, predatory pricing
what a monopoly tells its customers	thank you for choosing BellSouth
successful people	the top 1%, winners of life’s lottery
take money from other people and give it to you	fight for you
wanting to keep more of your own money	greed
rat hole	lockbox
republic	democracy
chaos	anarchy
companies	polluters
large companies	Big Oil, Big Tobacco
Reds	the Green Party
contest every absentee ballot	count every vote
tax and spend	fiscal responsibility
adding a huge new benefit to a program on the brink of insolvency	modernizing Medicare
Third World countries	developing countries
government building	nation building
leaders on the losing side of a war with the U.S.	war criminals
Henry Kissinger, Robert MacNamara, et al	statesmen
one-world government	global governance
countries with lower tax rates	unfair tax competition
energy companies	pirates, marauders, gougers, greedy profiteers, snakes
price controls	deregulation
Socialist	Independent
taxpayer-funded	universal
power grab	close the loophole, bill of rights
excuse for the nanny state	public safety
excuse for tyranny	for the children
Carnivore	DCS1000
jewfish	goliath grouper
small tax cuts planned for future years, increases in other taxes, payments to non-taxpayers	tax cut
an intern I had an affair with	a good friend
convicted felons	disenfranchised voters
Clarence Thomas	Hitler
libertarians	libertoids, kids, Lincoln-hating states’ rightsers who confuse nostalgia for a fictional past with an achievable agenda for the future
Future Name Changes
Aunt Jemimah	Sustainable Syrup
Uncle Ben’s	Recyclable Rice
Winn Dixie	Winn Union
Washington Redskins	Washington Red Ink
Cleveland Indians	Cleveland New Dealers
Atlanta Braves	Atlanta Too Busy To Haters
the White House	the President’s House