The crux of the “Sugarcoating Evil” article is that “Totalitarians of the past two centuries have sanitized evil by using syrupy phrases and words to mask their true intentions and meaning.” One pertinent portion reads at the onset:
It has often been said that if the devil shows up at the door to steal your soul, he will not appear with bat wings, cloven hoofs, horns, a tail and smelling of brimstone, but will instead be handsome and charming and impeccably dressed. I would add that he will be erudite, with a beautiful, mellifluous siren voice, and speak with such a nonstop fluidity that you will be captivated by his speech to the point that you will not be able to stop and think calmly.
We actually see this today in the various, yet dovetailed, attempts at destroying America from within and, along with it, its traditional, sacred, principles. From various sources we are told that stating truths, stating facts, voicing certain opinions, must be suppressed at all costs, and all outlets for voicing opposition to this disintegration must be crushed. No divisiveness must exist, these satanic agents proclaim. Rather, we must all speak with one voice (theirs) think with one mind (theirs).
Nowadays, words which on the face appear reasonable and correct are being used to mask truly horrific ends. Words are being mangled by these agents of evil. Even some phrases which have been commonly used are now being stolen and warped to promote the destruction of America. And some are even being used to mean the opposite of the original meaning.
The New English Review had an intriguing op-ed simply entitled “Sugarcoating Evil.” In George Orwell’s Politics and the English Language, he spent a considerable time examining the connection between political orthodoxies and the debasement of language, as well as the use of rhetorical doubletalk. Orwell carried this point home in his dystopian novel 1984 whereby he introduced the concept of Newspeak, the language of Big Brother. In Orwell’s novel, the ruling English Socialist Party (Ingsoc) conjured the Newspeak lexicon in order to meet the ideological demands of the totalitarian state ideology of Oceania. Newspeak was a controlled language of simplified grammar and restricted vocabulary designed to constrain the individual’s ability to think, articulate, and communicate “subversive” concepts such as personal identity, self-expression and free will. The effect of Newspeak was to enervate the very existence of its speakers.