We humans communicate primarily by language, using words that have established meaning.

But political thought leaders have learned to sway public opinion on controversial matters by describing them with familiar words used out of context and with very different meanings. That’s an age-old marketing technique (like the old Ivory Soap commercial claiming theirs to be a superior product because it’s “99 and 44/100% pure”) now repurposed to sell political positions instead of soap.

Today’s pretzel-twisting of common words is a page out of George Orwell’s 1984; he called it Newspeak, government’s way of steering public reaction. A few examples, among many:

• Democracy. This is widely understood to mean a free people and representative form of government. That’s who we are, and all Americans want to make sure that we remain exactly that: free people with representative government.

But what we hear most about democracy these days is that it’s under fierce attack, gravely threatened by challenges of election results (as in 2020, 2016, and many times before) and by changes in state election laws to provide ballot security needed for expanded mail-in voting. At the same time, the political party that currently holds the slimmest of congressional margins proposes to “protect democracy” by changing Senate rules to allow them to act with no participation by 50 Republican senators and the people whom they represent — an inherently undemocratic change.

They’re not concerned about the “threat to democracy” but the threat to their political influence.

• Terrorism. We know terrorism only too well; on September 11th 2001, we watched in horror as the two World Trade Center towers came tumbling down, killing more than 2,977 innocents.

But now the FBI claims that “domestic terrorism” is our number one security concern (where is it?) and Attorney General Merrick Garland likens concerned parents at school board meetings to terrorists. Please.

• Insurrection. This is a word that’s largely been relegated to the history books, for the very good reason that we haven’t seen one in the USA since the Civil War. But on January 6, 2021, a TV commentator floated the insurrection label, and it caught on. Most responsible journalists recognize the vast difference between an orchestrated attempt to overthrow our government and a rowdy bunch of unarmed blowhards screaming that they’re going to “take back our country.” Now politicians and media carelessly refer to the insurrection as if a few hours of senseless civil disobedience came within a whisker of toppling the most powerful nation on earth.

• Protest and riot. Those terms properly apply to both the events on January 6 and the thousands of mob actions in 2020 triggered by the George Floyd killing. In describing the latter, most media avoided mention of the word “riot” and settled instead on “mostly peaceful protests” (even when reporting in front of burning buildings), glossing over the reality of dozens of deaths, billions in damages, attacks on police, and destroyed livelihoods.

And if we are now redefining insurrection as meaning any attack on governmental authority, then firebombing a federal courthouse in Portland and taking over an entire police precinct in Seattle should qualify as well.

• Him and her. These pronouns that connote biological sex and gender are now considered offensive unless specifically OK’d by the person in question. And to be on the safe side we’re advised to use “they” for both, a grammatically incorrect substitution with the subtle implication that biology, common sense, and our own eyes can no longer be trusted.

• Science. Some folks like to claim that certain policy on climate change and on COVID is “following the science” and then slam anyone with the temerity to disagree. That’s exactly wrong. Science is the never-ending search for truth, fueled by constant challenge and layer after layer of questions.

• Racism. Our important quest to recognize and fight racism in America is regularly undermined by people’s proclivity to use racism — with a dash of white supremacy — as a universal, one-size-fits-all explanation of disparities in economic conditions, COVID outcomes, academic achievement, SAT scores, police misconduct, etc.

If racism is the underlying cause of all that’s wrong, then efforts to eradicate it will be seen as futile, and real racism will thrive.

It’s all babble, words chosen for their effect, not their accuracy. Call it word salad, and let’s nominate Canada’s Justin Trudeau as its newest poster child. We get it, the Freedom Convoy truckers’ strike was creating economic havoc at the border, and Trudeau needed to reopen the bridges. But was it helpful for him to call it an assault on democracy or to pile on accusations of racism, terrorism, hatred, division, violence, and even Nazism?

OK, word salad is not exactly a threat to our form of government. It’s just condescending and manipulative — and it reduces our leaders to soap salesmen. They ought to give it a rest.