Several years ago there was an expose post US-Iraq war about euphemisms used by the media during the conflict. As a lover of euphemisms (the funny ones) I came across this article. If you click on the title (hyperlink) it goes to the original site. Click "get a new headline" on the picture to generate a new euphemism.
Some of the more amusing ones are:
- Prisoners experienced improved dental entreatments
- Prisoners experienced induced aquatic diagnosis
- Logs show unusual research methods
- Intensified electromagnetic systems and processes utilised
Reading the NYT's stories about the Iraq War logs, I was struck by how it could get through such gruesome descriptions — fingers chopped off, chemicals splashed on prisoners — without using the word 'torture.' For some reason the word is unavailable when it is literally meaningful, yet is readily tossed around for laughs in contexts where it means nothing at all. It turns out the NYT has a reputation for studiously avoiding the word, to the point of using bizarre bureaucratic alternatives.
It must be awfully hard work inventing these things. So I thought I'd help out by putting together a torture euphemism generator that the New York Times' reporters can use to help avoid the T-word in their thumb removal and acid bath coverage.
No comments:
Post a Comment