Doublespeak

Hey, it's Erin. I've been reading "Doublespeak" by William Lutz (which is a really interesting book), where he looks at doublespeak in the law, business/economics, and government/politics. For the most part, I've known and understood what he says (I mean, if you think of doublespeak, you're going to expect it in politics). But when it came to the chapter about doublespeak in the law, I was a little surprised by what I discovered. It was sort of like one of those things that you know deep-down, but never expected it to be so far-reaching or extensive. Lutz goes over cases of how police search the wrong place by accident, find criminal things, and are able to use that in court even though the search was illegal, without a warrant. It's called an "honest mistake". Or another such mistake, when a prosecutor uses a forced confession from the witness, but the sentence stands. Lutz pointed out that those "honest mistakes" are always made by the police or the prosecution, never the defendant or their attornies, which is an example of doublespeak. How do you know if it was a "mistake"? Or even "honest"? But what I really have a hard time grasping is how blatant doublespeak can be. Do people really believe that nobody will pick that up? That by changing the word nobody else will know? I guess they do because they get away with it (you know, why change what works?).

Sometimes though I find doublespeak hilarious. Calling lies "terminological inexactitudes" or "political credibility problems" and liars "sufferers from fictitious disorder syndrome" makes me laugh. I've played a game like that once, the titles to Christmas carols are placed in big, complicated words and you need to figure out which song it is. It's funny. We always think that people who use big words are smart, but all that the people with "political credibility problems" just use them as a mask, so they sound like they are saying something intelligent, when really they are saying nothing at all in terms of intellectual value.

Has anyone else had such a "shock" revelation in their books? Or was it just something you knew before?