When power speaks, it rarely tells you the truth outright. The truth has sharp edges. It cuts reputations, ends careers, exposes corruption. That’s why politicians, executives, and pundits spend so much energy dulling those edges with language designed to evade responsibility. The trick is simple: turn lies into “embellishments,” disasters into “incidents,” and corruption into “misunderstandings.” Make sure the words do the hiding so the people don’t have to.
February’s events gave us a masterclass in this. Start with George Santos. The man’s entire résumé is fabricated, but the word in circulation wasn’t “fraud” or “liar.” It was “embellishment.” Reporters and colleagues alike leaned on that polite little dodge, as though inflating one’s career, heritage, and finances were just a matter of adding adjectives. Call it embellishment and you avoid calling it what it is: deception elevated to political survival. That word choice isn’t accidental. It’s strategy.
The same applies to the East Palestine derailment. A freight train carrying toxic chemicals derails and poisons the air and water of a small Ohio town. Dead fish surface in rivers, residents report rashes, and pets die. But officials call it an “incident.” They reassure citizens that the water is safe, the air is breathable, and everything is under control. “Incident” makes it sound like a hiccup in a system that still functions, rather than the consequence of deregulation and corporate negligence. A whole region gets poisoned, and the word chosen is one that lowers the temperature rather than raises it.
Language is power. That’s why the classified documents scandals became another case study in evasion. Biden’s team cooperated, Trump obstructed. The facts were different, but the coverage blurred them into one word: “mishandling.” A neutral, technical term that equates carelessness with criminal intent. By the time it filtered into public consciousness, the distinction was gone. “Mishandling” meant the same thing for both. And once again, the footnote was erased, the accountability diluted.
This isn’t new. Decades of political history are littered with evasive phrasing. Think of “mistakes were made,” the classic non-apology. It’s built to sound like an admission without ever naming the culprit. Or “out of context,” the favorite phrase of every politician caught saying something revealing. Or “enhanced interrogation,” the euphemism that turned torture into policy. Each phrase is a disguise. Each one tells you less than it conceals. And the concealment is the point.
What makes March 2023 different is the sheer accumulation. In just a few weeks, Americans heard “embellishment,” “incident,” and “mishandling” so often that the words began to sound normal. That’s how evasion works—it wears down your sense of outrage until you shrug. And shrugging is exactly what the powerful want. If people shrug, nothing changes.
The danger isn’t only in the words themselves. It’s in how quickly the public accepts them. Reporters repeat them. Citizens repeat them. Before long, they become the language of ordinary conversation. That’s when the trick succeeds: when euphemism replaces reality not only in headlines but in daily talk. If everyone says “incident,” then the poison in the air and water doesn’t feel like a crime. It feels like something that just happens.
Here’s the truth that evasive language tries to smother: lies are lies, disasters are preventable, and corruption is deliberate. The people who benefit from softening those truths are the ones who would rather keep power than face consequences. If the words make it sound tolerable, the system survives. That’s why every phrase matters.
We can’t afford to take these words lightly. Words like “embellishment” and “incident” aren’t neutral. They are weapons. They are the shields the powerful carry into battle. And if we accept them without question, then we’ve already lost the fight.
The antidote is clarity. Say liar instead of embellisher. Say disaster instead of incident. Say crime instead of mishandling. Because once we let the words slip, the accountability slips with them. And power always prefers a world where nothing sharp is left, where the edges have all been filed down to nothing.