Unpoltical

The book ‘Unspeak’, by Steven Poole, is well written, intelligent and thought out. Unfortunately, it is also annoyingly political, which really grinds my gears. The book is concerned with how people from around the world have twisted the English language and euphemisms so that they impart a specific political message or ideological belief without the listener even being aware of it.

He discusses such words as ‘Pro-life’ (which implies that anybody on the other side must automatically be ‘Anti-life’, thereby demonising them and making any proper argument impossible) and ‘Terrorist Suspect’ (By putting terrorist first the need to prove anything has been removed, as the person is a terrorist first and suspect second). What he has to say about these topics is definitely well thought out, the problem is that he then tries to use similar tactics on you as he’s attacking in his book.

Steven Poole is obviously left wing in his beliefs, but he never comes out and says that directly. Instead, he makes certain that it is mainly the Unspeak of the Right that he attacks, bringing forward very few examples of Unspeak as they happen on the Left. Now, it is highly possible that the Right uses more Unspeak than the Left, I’m not arguing that, but by his reckoning the Left uses barely any. That just isn’t true.

Argument through omission is just another method of twisting language and ideas to convince an audience. What’s more, by pushing his book as a treatise on euphemisms, rather than as a politically motivated book, he tries to sneak in his politics under the radar.

Politics by stealth.

As a person who is so concerned with the message people impart in what language they use and what they say, he seems to be blind to his own leanings.

I believe that this type of book should be apolitical. It should serve to arm us with the tools to see how language is being twisted around us and then allow us to use that skill to make up our own minds about the political arena.

To give kudos where kudos is due, Unspeak did do that to some extent. I just wish I didn’t have to use the tools I’m learning on the very book that is trying to teach them to me.