Deadly Euphemism: Difference between revisions
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** Which may be a [[Shout-Out]] to a similar misunderstanding in ''[[Pulp Fiction]]''.
* [[Dirty Cop]] movies and TV shows will inevitably reference the arrestee "resisting arrest" as a euphemism for having beat them (or requesting that they be beat) senseless. Unfortunately also very much [[Truth in Television]].
* In ''[[The Lord of the Rings|Return of the King]]'', the attack on Minas Tirith starts with Gothmog giving the order to 'release the prisoners'. Cue severed Gondorian heads flying over the city walls.
* In ''[[Logan's Run]]'', Logan 5 (a Sandman) is explaining his job to Jessica 6:
{{quote|'''Jessica 6''': That's what you do, isn't it? Kill?
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== Real Life ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20131009235324/http://www.nizkor.org/features/techniques-of-denial/st-01.html "Special treatment"] was one of the euphemisms used by the Nazis. Others include the special units (work units of death camps) and task forces (death squads).
** The Nazis had a sort of hierarchy of euphemisms concerning the Holocaust: the phrase "resettlement in the East" was used for general public consumption. "Final Solution to the Jewish Question," for most government documents, "liquidation" for those pertaining directly to the Holocaust. "Annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe" was used only in the most closed circumstances, to those who knew the stakes.
** The term "concentration camp" was a Deadly Euphemism used by the Nazis for the death camps they used to exterminate Jews and other undesirables. The original definition of "concentration camp" was a place to imprison large populations of people without the intent of killing them, similar to the internment camps that held Japanese Americans during [[World War II]].
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* Governments "neutralizing" their victims.
** An interesting example is the phrase "terminate with extreme prejudice". The original phrase was "terminate with prejudice", which in the business world meant "fire him and don't forget why". Francis Ford Coppola added the "extreme" to the phrase in ''[[Apocalypse Now]]''; the new phrase is arguably better-known than the old one.
*** The origin of the former is, I believe, as a variant upon court dismissals. (AFAIK) for a case to be dismissed without prejudice permits it to be filed again, whereas if it is dismissed with prejudice then this places certain restraints (similar to double jeopardy) upon the case being filed once more. This permits the courts to distinguish between e.g. cases where there simply isn't enough evidence to go to trial yet from those which are obviously time wasting or absurd – or which have already terminated in an out-of-court settlement. The 'termination with prejudice' similarly allows a distinction between those who are the victims of downsizing and those who have, for example, been dismissed for gross misconduct.
** Euphemisms and coded language are often used by criminals to try to avoid detection. However, coded language and euphemisms can be introduced as evidence of conspiracy so you're screwed coming and going.
** In the Philippine police and military, the term "salvage" is used in place of "summary execution." (This term was adopted by Margaret Atwood in ''The Handmaid's Tale''.)
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* Subway/train suicides in Japan are referred to as "human damage incidents."
** It's common in New York too, where service disruptions caused by people being run over (suicide or otherwise) are always referred to as "police investigations." Of course, that term is also used to refer to literal police investigations, so it can be somewhat ambiguous. Subway workers and those who picked up the term from other sources typically refer to such a thing as a "12-9;" the radio code for such incidents.
** In Toronto, the TTC is prone to announce that "power is off at [name of station]" in one or both directions, without explaining why. A more recent euphemism, common on GO Transit (Metrolinx), is "an injury at track level".
** On the same note, in Germany (or Hamburg at least) the incredibly bureaucratic word ''"Personenanfahrschaden"'' (basically untranslatable - maybe ''Person knock-down damage'') was in use, but this practice was discontinued, probably because of
** Oddly, within the London Underground, public service announcements about these incidents are likely to be euphemism-free, e.g. 'There are delays on the Jubilee Line due to a suicide at Finchley Road' or 'A person under the train at Dollis Hill'. Meanwhile, amongst Transport For London staff the euphemism one-under is more likely to be used, apparently.
* Does the real-life Mafia actually use the phrase "took him to the cleaners" to refer to killing someone?
** More generally refers to beating someone up, in British slang, i.e. "I'll take you to the fuckin' cleaners"
** Pseudo-Mafia slang: "sleepin' with the fishes" usually refers to a body that's been dumped into the nearest body of water, usually with some concrete to weigh the body down, sometimes stuffed into a 55 US-gallon drum. Generally when such a victim washes up, it's said that "police suspect foul play". Ya think?
* If it is said that someone, generally in the armed forces, is not taking prisoners, what do you think happens to the people they capture? A catch and release program? Disarming them and sending them on their way? Maybe... but probably not.
** Similar with "giving no quarter".
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* Ethnic cleansing. Just as bad as it sounds.
* "Falling down the stairs" is a common one (in the UK at least) to describe police beating up prisoners, either for interrogation or just revenge.
* James Hume, the favorite [[Bounty Hunter]] of Wells-Fargo (known for writing [[Mugging the Monster|Wells-Fargo Never Forgets]] on one robber's tombstone), once said, "My salary has been increased from time-to-time."
* And then there's the deliberate killing of healthy companion animals, common in shelters and pounds for any of a long list of reasons from "temperament" to "shelter overcrowding". The list of euphemisms is a long one, ranging from "put to sleep" to "euthanised". As if the animal were with "a nice family on a farm somewhere".
{{reflist}}
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