inverting public discourse

[joanna bujes]

At 04:35 PM 10/16/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>Okay. I am not particular about which term to use either in this above
>case or in the previous one on totalitarianism v. fascism. But it
>would be nice (or perhaps even more dangerous) to have a name for the
>systematic distortion of public discourse. Kirkpatrick, Bork,
>Buchannan, Bennett, Gingrich, and other rightwing ideologues (outright
>fascists in my lexicon) are masters at subverting terminology, and
>thereby inverting the public discourse. Perhaps it has become so
>ubiquitous that it is merely the means to political argument, and has
>completely taken the place of how discourse is (or I always thought
>was) supposed to be conducted----that is how, the democratic forum is
>supposed to function.

How about doublespeak? See "Politics and the English Language" Orwell.

Joanna B.