More Euphemisms in Quotes

Red flags, dog whistles: “shoved down our throats”, “identity politics”. (Translation: mentioned at all, minority fighting for equality.)

@NTCouncilTeam have announced the 'next chapter' for Tynemouth's 18th century library is demolition, despite being in a conservation area. (@SAVEBrit)


As I understand it, some people mistake robust defence of boundaries and safety as “meanness”, and that perception then informs their opinion such that they see such robust defence as “extreme”. I think it’s a misunderstanding and misapplication of tone, socially imprinted. (@DuncanHenry78)

"Educate yourself" means "ingest intellectually indigestible quackery". (@Jebadoo2)

"Educate yourself" and "Do your research" are some of the most mind-numbing, intellectually dead-end phrases of the modern age. (@A_Woman_She_Is. Translation: (a) Toe the party line. b) Watch a youtube video.)

In these last weeks we have seen extraordinary work by many women journalists, keeping a focus on issues which have too long been unspoken. Dismissing this as a “crusade” or “unapologetic activism” undermines their work and deliberately misses the point. (@SenatorWong)


Views should be taken on facts, as much as we can ascertain them. But it’s important to acknowledge nuance too. (@the_happycamper)

Christian counselling, or as I call it, not counselling. (@masonmennenga)

Andouillette... Oddly, that doesn't seem to be described as a 'delicacy', which is the usual code for something absolutely disgusting for which they can charge ostensible gourmets and/or tourists exorbitantly. (AG)

Her husband is the one who encouraged (Read: forced or demanded) Helen Gurley Brown to write Sex and the Single Girl. (Amazon reviewer)

I don’t regard “innovative” as a synonym for “good” at all – as I keep telling people at meetings... The plays that work best are those ... that do not regard “stagy” as a pejorative adjective. (Conrad Brunstrom)

Innovation is mainly what we used to know as 'research.' It then progresses to 'research and development' which, one hopes, results in a new technology or technologies emerging. (David Simpson)

If I said the word 'pain' colleagues took it as coded language for 'I'm lazy' and 'I can't do my work'. (Disabled doctor on bbc.co.uk)

I think, as a family, that we do feel things deeply, but we're not very sentimental. (LW See “I was sad when Diana died but I was not hysterical.”)

Objective morality? Depends on what you mean by it. Some mean absolute morality. Some mean observable morality. (Retired lawyer @KellyPearsall3)

Institutions aren’t gaslighting you, they’re lying to you - it’s okay to just say that. (@artfulhussey)

Let’s not conflate religion & spirituality!
religion: group think/notions
spirituality: individual think/notions
(@NoHolyScripture)

Disabled people are ‘heroes’ and ‘inspirational’ and ‘so strong’, until we ask for accessibility and equal rights and benefits we can actually afford to live on. then we’re scroungers and burdens to the State. (@TinyWriterLaura)

Artist's impression (aka artist's licence). (RM re new “developments” and McMansions)

"History" is not going to remember, record, judge, find, prove or do anything else. We have to do these things. (@rothmanistan)

We [met through Hinge and] immediately started asking each other the big questions. “How do you see the world?” “What do you want from life?” (Independent. Translation: What are your politics? Are you looking for an affair, a relationship, marriage, children?)

It doesn’t sit comfortably with me. (Woman on Country House Rescue who doesn’t want to admit the public. She means "I utterly loathe the idea".)

Extroversion is labelled leadership and introversion, followership. (Farah Mendlesohn)

The economy will benefit from a more flexible regulatory environment. (RR) Translation: investors make more money if health and safety and other regulations are reduced or eliminated. (RK)

There are no serious offenses that aren’t already discoverable and punishable under existing laws. When officials say they need a new security law, what they really mean is they want new powers to surveil without a warrant or to impose severe penalties without as much evidence. (@justinamash)

One Pixar animator says, “Why don’t we make a movie about talking toilet brushes?” And the other animator, instead of issuing a blank “No”, says: “Yes and why don’t we think about it for a little while longer until it becomes a movie that’s not about talking toilet brushes?” (Kevin Maher, Times)

Study shows that in the process of eradicating extremism, the minds of Uygur women in Xinjiang were emancipated and gender equality and reproductive health were promoted, making them no longer baby-making machines. They are more confident and independent. (Chinese Embassy. By “promoting reproductive health” they mean “forced sterilisation”.)

“Lifestyle”: a word long used by crypto-moralists to judge others. (Maggie McNeill)

The pressure to “Be authentic!” and “Be vulnerable!” was often used by white Evangelicals to manipulate and control others through confession culture and peer spying. I regret letting my guard down and disclosing deeply personal info which they inevitably used against me. (@anna_apostate)

“Pure,” like “chemical,” is saturated with ideology. (@sesquiotic)

I know I am in trouble during oral argument when the judge says "That is a creative argument,
Mr Selnes". (Bill Selnes via Clothes in Books)

"I guess you're not interested in dialogue — you just want to be right." People who fail to recognise that they have been dialogued with — they just want to be right. (@sumpnlikefaith)

I was listening to R4 and they wheeled in a senior Tory who said "in many ways I have a lot of respect for X", which I guess is politician speak for "mostly I think he's a complete ****."

Lovebombing is just another word for grooming. (@NSurvivor)

Bring back the words "criticise" and "condemn". They do important work that "call out" cannot manage. (@kieran_hurley)

When you hear people complain about Big Government and Too Many Rules, what they want is to store their chemicals in a residential district. (Donal Savage)

flamboyant: In Paris Chopin collected droves of fainting female fans, but little is known about his sex life before his fateful relationship with the flamboyantly mannish writer George Sand. (Independent. Usually a dogwhistle for “gay”, but here means “cross dresser”.)

The language of the totalist environment is characterized by the thought-terminating cliché. The most far-reaching and complex of human problems are compressed into brief, highly reductive, definitive-sounding phrases, easily memorized and easily expressed. These become the start and finish of any ideological analysis. (Robert Jay Lifton)

In the UK, Molson Coors have pulled their Animée ‘lady beer’ after just one year. In last week’s Marketing, WCRS Planning Director Matt Willifer argued that Animée was a “brave launch by an admirably innovative company”. Sambridger.com (I think that translates as “idiotic move by a set of birdwitted chumps”.)

"Critical Race Theory" is today's version of "secular humanism" from my childhood. Meaning that the phrase is used as a signpost and a bogeyman by corrupt and disingenuous people to frighten targeted segments of the general population into believing they're under threat. (@andreapitzer)

When they start calling the people peacefully protesting the system "violent anarchists" and the people violently enforcing the system "peace keepers", you can disregard anything else they have to say. (@existentialcoms)

You see I come from Georgia, where it’s considered vulgar for women to know about business. (Character in Perry Mason. She means finances, or more bluntly, money.)

It was seen as "self-explaining" (code for making excuses and not really apologizing). (Via Facebook)

The BBC’s head of drama argues the corporation must “repurpose” classic novels by giving them female, black and Asian characters. (The Daily Telegraph on Twitter, April 2020.)

We used to have performance reviews every so often and at one I was asked if I wanted to be more involved in management. I said no. Talking to others later, I found this was code for "Do you want some more money?" and the expected answer was "Yes". (PD)

I have been involved in 'disruption' in the corporate sector and what it usually means is 'firing people.' (LW)

The President of Wesleyan U promises that: "Direct participation in civic life... will help students develop skills for lifelong active citizenship… gain organizational skills, learn to engage productively with others with whom they disagree and learn about themselves". (Does he mean “stop disagreeing or “admit they are right”?)

Focussing on characters rather than plot is often coded language for plots so thin and badly conceived that you could drive several coaches through them. (Mark Green.)

When the government uses the word “robust” you know they’re in big trouble. (Hugh Pearman, paraphrase)
See also "sustainable community of eco-homes", which is what car-dependent, greenfield cul-de-sacs in rendered breeze block were called about ten years ago. (Barnabas Calder)

More here, and links to the rest.