"Dinner’s ready", you hear the call.
"What is it?"
"Aha! Portions of partially cremated, recently slaughtered cow."
"Ugh."
We don’t say that, of course. We use words to make the truth sound more bland. They are cover-ups for life’s harsh realities called euphemisms. The above sample: ‘Barbecued rump steak.’ We even hide the real name of the animal we’ve slaughtered: beef for cow or veal for baby cow, or pork for pig.
Euphemisms are used to cover up other distasteful and real meanings. For example:
- Globalisation: Imperialism
- Privatisation: Selling or giving away public assets to mainly foreign companies/countries
- Anti-Terrorism Laws: Further control of any dissent
- Install Democracy: Install "our" man
- Pre-emptive Strike: Aggression
- Spin: Distortion, lies, particularly by commentators or "experts"
- Democracy: Our form of government. It’s good, it’s great, it’s marvellous – as long as the powerful and rich rule – through their agents – the "pollies"
The meaning of ‘terrorism’ has been distorted. The Macquarie Australian dictionary defines terror as ‘intense sharp overpowering fear.’ ‘Terrorism’ is defined as ‘the use of terror, especially violence, to achieve political ends.’
We in the west recognise terrorism when used against us. We don’t recognise it when it’s used against others, particularly if the others are from Asia, Africa or Latin America. War is terrorism, particularly modern war. War includes depriving civilians of food and medicine often coupled with the fear of attack. Modern war targets civilians. Bombs and rockets are ‘anti-personnel’. Cluster bombs, land mines, napalm and other forms of fire bombs, time-delay bomblets, etc all have perhaps the main purpose: to terrorise the civilian population.
When terrorism is used against others, 
particularly those from the third world, we invent a euphemism to make it look as though it was justified and necessary. Some of the euphemisms for ‘lie’ are ‘propaganda’, ‘official information’ and ‘official bulletin’.
When we are going to wage war against a country, our government and media presents us with an image of that country as uncivilised, dangerous and inhuman.
Read the media with a critical eye. A lie is a lie is a lie. War is terror.
-Jim Knight