"How to Give a Speech without Saying Anything"

I recently came across an article titled, "How to Give a Speech without Saying Anything" (http://www.howcast.com/videos/7402-how-to-give-a-speech-without-saying-anything/) and this grabbed my attention because of our discussion of vague political speaking in class. The article has a clear satirical purpose giving instructions such as, "Keep it vague", "Use euphemisms", and "Run down the clock"; however, as I started thinking about it, it's not too far from what Orwell was saying in his essay. Politicians everywhere use meaningless words and worn-out metaphors for the same purpose: to confuse and manipulate the audience. And sorry to break it to you, Orwell. It hasn't gotten any better in 2016.

Let's start with a quote from Michelle Bachmann: “Literally, if we took away the minimum wage — if conceivably it was gone — we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level.”. This quote has a few problems. Well, a few BIG problems, in my opinion. First, she uses meaningless vocab in order to say "maybe" without actually saying "maybe". "Conceivably", "Potentially", and "Virtually" are just a few of the words that make the entire quote trash. Potentially, anything could happen if minimum wage was gone, and the fact that she chose to use the word "potentially" here shows that she seems pretty uncertain about her own claim. But my favorite thing about her take on minimum wage is her response when she was asked about it a few years later. The following conversation is a quote from an interview regarding Bachmann's opinion on job growth and inhibitors to the employment growth: Stephanopoulos: "Let me try one more time, so you are saying that the minimum wage is one of those regulations you’d take a look at, you’d try to eliminate it?"
Bachmann: "Well what I’m saying is that I think we need to look at all regulations, whatever--whatever ones are inhibiting job growth that’s what we need to --"
Stephanopoulos: "And the minimum wage is one of them?"
Bachmann: "All regulations George. I think every department. We have just too much expansion of government and so what we need to do is tamp that down so that the American people can keep more of what they make."
Here, Bachmann is unable to make any assertion at all and keeps darting around the real question asked: "Will getting rid of the minimum wage create job growth?". Instead of even using the words "minimum wage" she chooses to talk about "regulations". Who even knows what these regulations are? I know I don't.

Unfortunately Bachmann is definitely not the only politician to use vague speaking to cover up uncertainty, or lies, or even murder, as Orwell puts it. This growing trend of foggy political writing seems to keep getting worse, and without conscious action, Orwell would say that we are doomed. I was reluctant to absorb Orwell's outrageous claims in the first few paragraphs including, "English is in a bad way" and English language will share in the "general collapse"; however, he seems to hit the mark in the end when he asserts that "political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible". When politicians are asked something they don't know the answer to, they buy more time, they scoot around the answer, and sometimes they flat out lie. That right there is using the English language as an instrument. We use it to deflect and hide, and we've sure gotten good at it. Orwell knows what he's talking about.