Politics to Plain English: a decoder (what Politicians really mean)
How to decode politics-speak into plain English.
Politics to Plain English: a decoder
“Safety & efficacy” → We want visibility and control of systems and bodies; you’ll accept constraints because they’re framed as protection.
“National security” → We’re invoking the master key that overrides normal process, transparency, and timelines.
“For the children” → We’re moving the Overton window via an unassailable shield; expect ID, gating, and new platform rules.
“Misinformation/disinformation” → We’ll decide which narratives are allowed and throttle the rest through platforms and payments.
“Balance privacy and safety” → We’re carving exceptions so monitoring is on by default.
“End-to-end encryption, but responsible” → We’ll scan you before you encrypt or after you decrypt.
“Modernization / digital transformation” → New data collection points and the ability to join datasets; audit trails for you, discretion for us.
“Resilience” → Pre-authorization for emergency powers, fast procurement, and automated throttles.
“Temporary emergency measures” → Defaults that will not sunset.
“Harmonization / international standards” → Coordinated rules you can’t escape by jurisdiction hopping.
“Public-private partnership” → State objectives routed through platforms, clouds, banks, and telcos. Less FOIA, more leverage.
“Trusted partners / stakeholders” → The preselected winners.
“Evidence-based” → We will pick the dataset and the definitions; dissenting data will be ruled “low quality”.
“Independent experts” → Funded, appointed, or scoped by us; independence is branding.
“Transparency” → A dashboard of what helps our narrative; the rest sits behind exemptions.
“Accountability” → A new reporting loop for you; minimal liability for us.
“Choice” → Multiple options, one backend. All roads lead to the same ledger. Visa vs MasterCard - your choice.
“Affordability” → Subsidies to push you onto our rails; competing rails get fee friction.
“Innovation” → We’ll pick winners that ship the policy knobs we need (identity, revocation, provenance).
“Free and fair” (elections/platforms) → We’ll police speech and money flows in ways we define as fairness.
“Common-sense reform” → We’re lowering your defenses by implying only extremists would object.
“Crackdown on bad actors” → We’re turning up the perimeter controls for everyone; bad actors are the frame, not the target.
“Pilot program / sandbox” → A test we’ll later claim worked, then make the default.
“Voluntary guidelines” → De facto mandates for any company touching banking, app stores, or clouds.
“Best practices” → Adherence-or-else, enforced by insurers, auditors, and app-store terms.
“Zero tolerance” → Permission to be arbitrary; the rule of men dressed as the rule of law.
“Sovereignty / strategic autonomy” → Subsidies and obligations for domestic vendors; foreign escape valves will close.
“Tax fairness” → Real-time reporting and withholding at the source; less discretion for you.
“Mature conversation” → We’re about to move a red line while shaming push-back as childish.
“Not about X” (said repeatedly) → It is about X; repetition is inoculation.
“Learnings” → No apology, no rollback - just the signal we’re keeping the change.
“No plan to…” → We plan to - after the next news cycle.
“Respecting rights” → We’ll define the right so it coexists with our program.
“Public consultation” → We’ve already decided; we’re collecting quotes to cite.
“International norms” → We’ll point to our peers doing the same thing next week.
“Criminals use…” (cash, crypto, anonymity) → Expect restrictions for everyone under an anti-crime banner.
“Sector-neutral rules” → Our rules target the small and spare the integrated incumbents.
“Metrics of success” → We’ll select numbers that can be gamed and then game them.