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Words that do the work: euphemism and engineered language
Euphemism persuades without arguing: it removes the picture. From Orwell's "pacification" to "special military operation", "enhanced interrogation" and the "year of efficiency", how engineered words work on every side, and how to translate them back.
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When the "conspiracy theory" became an official assessment
The lab-leak idea went from "conspiracy theory" to an FBI, DOE and CIA leaning, all hedged. The laptop was blocked, then authenticated. 5G-COVID and chemtrails stayed false. The lesson is method: confidence, evidence, who said what when.
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Nayirah, 1990: how an atrocity story is built
A 15-year-old's four-minute testimony about babies taken from incubators helped sell the 1991 Gulf War. She was the Kuwaiti ambassador's daughter, coached by a PR firm. How the story was built, and why real atrocities still get dismissed.
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The press and the agency: Operation Mockingbird and the Church Committee
"Project Mockingbird" in the CIA's own files is a 1963 wiretap of two columnists. The Senate's Church Committee found covert ties to about 50 US journalists and over 1,000 subsidised books. Documented, disputed and legend, separated.