How to spot government BS

Language expert and forensic linguist Alan Perlman says there has always been a category of human communication which we now call BS. But rhetoricians and language pros have only recently turned their attention to unpack actually what this type of malarkey is, and how it works. Perlman provides a brief synopsis for Opp Now readers as part of his exegesis of the city staff definition of "equity," which is analyzed nearby.

There are many definitions, but Perlman suggests three things to look for when you suspect gibberish is in the air:

1. Consistently well-formed sentences that sound like they mean something, but don't. BS likes to sound simple but is usually so broad and abstract as to make everything it says open to interpretation. BS-ers like to use jargon that readers don't understand but use it in a way that suggests that somebody, somewhere understands it (and that audiences are somehow “out of it” if they don’t). The point of BS is not to have real meaning -- in the sense that we can see or experience what the word refers to-- but to create a feeling or sensation.

2. Vague buzzwords have primacy. A buzzword is a fad-word whose use signals in-group membership, even is one isn’t exactly sure what it means.  Usually, as language develops in life, an idea--a thing--comes first, then humans come up with words to describe it. In BS, it's the other way around--the word comes first--"anti-racism," "systemic racism" "psychologically safe spaces”in the SJ example--and the reader is left to figure out what the word is referring to. By stripping words of concrete, real-world meaning, BS-ers suggest a reality that only they understand; this disempowers the listener, giving the speaker or the BS-er great communication power. 

3. Action and feeling trump clarity and meaning. The BS-er is not a liar. The liar wants you to believe in an alternative reality. The BSer doesn't care, they just want you to feel a certain way and give them power over you. So, when translated into real world experience, the BS-er usually coerces their listener to give them something--money, authority, whatever--and to do so in an open-ended way that only the BS-er can control.

Dr. Alan Perlman is a PhD and forensic linguist based in NH. Read more of his work here.

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