Simon Hankinson, a research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, has taken a look at Orwellian-style “Newspeak” as used to discuss U.S. immigration policy. Here are a few examples:
- “Undocumented person”: A euphemism for “illegal alien,” intended to suggest that the person “simply left their valid passport and visa at the bus station.”
- “Parole”: A term that used to mean taking someone’s word to do something you assumed they would do. Now, an excuse for DHS to admit illegal immigrants wholesale, while being fully aware that few will keep their promise to show up at immigration court.
- “Asylum seeker”: Any economic migrant, very few of whom meet asylum requirements.
- “Unsafe”: A term that used to refer to physical safety; now, synonymous with “uncomfortable.”
Hankinson also offers some tongue-in-cheek suggestions to government lexicographers anxious to re-craft the English language. For example, DHS still uses the old-fashioned term “drunk driver,” which might make the offender feel, well, unsafe. Instead, he suggests “alcohol-enhanced motor vehicle operator.” Or, instead of calling a spade a spade, how about dubbing it a “spearhead-shaped digging implement”?
In George Orwell’s ground-breaking novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, he showed how government–and others–can manipulate language to manipulate minds. Our overlords have learned their lessons well.
For more, see “Let’s Use Real Words To Convey the Truth on Immigration—And Matters of Public Policy” at heritage.org.