Would Be Rude to Say Genocide/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: Characters want to kill a group of people, but don't want general population to catch on it's actually genocide.

  • Straight: Mr X and Y want to get rid of a certain group. Consequently, they decide to call it an act of justice, downplay it with cleverly-worded euphemisms and play up the offended -card whenever someone attempts to mention it.
  • Exaggerated: Mr X and Y call the genocide the heroic act of justice, use loopholes by playing with words to escape accountability and accuse anyone trying to talk about it of slander. They also eliminate, neutralize, discredit, destroy, remove, silence or put down anyone, who aims to speak up and bring their deed to light for what it is.
  • Downplayed: This kind of covering, denial and manipulation happens in story's background.
  • Justified: Mr X and Y are self-righteous, self-important, sociopathic manipulators.
    • Mr X and Y did what they thought of as the best solution in the long run(whether any better solutions actually were there or not). Regardless, they still need to keep up their reputation, so anyone who threatens that is naturally someone to keep an eye on.
  • Inverted: Mr X and Y are actually working on something... good, but don't want to be seen as do-gooders so they present their actions as being evil, harmful, despicable and/or a dozen other adjectives indicative of general badness.
  • Subverted: Mr X and Y are forthright in telling everyone exactly what they are doing.
  • Double Subverted: ... but it is actually a Sarcastic Confession.
  • Parodied: Mr X and Y are brutally murdering select citizens of Happyland right in front of their friends and family. No-one notices, and even those few that do notice people dropping like violently disembowelled flies right before their eyes are quite easily persuaded that they are in fact imagining things. Even as fresh splatterings of friend-and-family-jam stain their clothes amidst deafening screaming and the roar of buzzsaws.
  • Zig Zagged: ???
  • Averted: Genocide is mentioned as such in the setting and people either grimply accept it or furiously start a riot.
  • Enforced: Censorship means 'genocide' cannot actually be portrayed. Alluding to it, however, is fine.
  • Lampshaded: So, partner, what do you think would be the best word to call this act and still maintain our reputation?
  • Invoked: Mr Z brings up the act to see how evasive or defensive Mr X and Y would get.
  • Exploited: Mr Z is going to use this knowledge to trick Mr X and Y into a position where they'll talk themselves to their downfall.
  • Defied: Mr X and Y decide that beating around the bush doesn't change anything and they've got nothing to gain by doing so.
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: ???
  • Plotted A Good Waste: Mr X and Y are disturbingly casual or business-like about their "pest control", highlighting their callous disregard for human life.

Back to euphemistic loopholing.

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