How to Coach Yourself and Others Beware of Manipulation | Page 200

78. Use Double Talk
Have you ever been confused, befuddled, or
annoyed by the speech or method of
communication of another person? Have you
ever listened to someone talk and had no idea
what they just said? Double talk, also known
as double speak, is defined as, "deliberately
ambiguous or evasive language." Other
colorful words to describe it are: balderdash,
baloney, hokum, bunkum, drivel, flimflam,
rigmarole, and waffling. Hokum and bunkum
are my favorites on that list. Sometimes the
language is gibberish mixed in with normal
speech.
Both double talk and double speak may be
used in different forms, but with the same
intent, which is to deceive, mislead, and/or
withhold information. Watch out for
manipulative double talkers, people who try to
dazzle you with big words and intellectual
double-talk. They want to drag you off into
endless arguments that never amount to
anything." It is very unpleasant to be taken
advantage of, and this is a vile form of it.
Always mean what you say and avoid those
who don't. If someone tries to manipulate you
with double talk, just tell them they are full of
hokum bunkum.
Sometimes it is difficult to muddle through the muck and mire of what was said. This "technique," if
you will, is often used by politicians. They go around the world, so to speak, to supposedly answer a
question, and when they are finished, they are hoping that no one noticed that the question was never
really answered. It is very frustrating, isn't it? It is also insulting to your intelligence and sense of
reason.
Wikipedia encyclopedia
Doublespeak is language that deliberately disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words.
Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms (e.g., "downsizing" for layoffs, "servicing the target"
for bombing, in which case it is primarily meant to make the truth sound more palatable. It may also
refer to intentional ambiguity in language or to actual inversions of meaning (for example, naming a
state of war "peace"). In such cases, doublespeak disguises the nature of the truth. Doublespeak is most
closely associated with political language.
The term doublespeak probably has its roots in George Orwell's book, Nineteen Eighty-Four. Although
the term is not used in the book, it is a close relative of one of the book's central concepts, Doublethink.
Another variant, doubletalk, also referring to deliberately ambiguous speech, did exist at the time
Orwell wrote his book, but the usage of doublespeak as well as of doubletalk in the sense emphasizing
ambiguity clearly postdates the publication of Nineteen Eighty-Four. Parallels have also been drawn
between Doublespeak and Orwell's classic essay Politics and the English Language, which discusses
the distortion of language for political purposes.

199