An online article for MacMillan dictionaries notes that many new words “enter and leave the language as the years go by, a direct reflection of the preoccupations of society in any particular era.” My reaction to the Dominion defamation suit against Fox News clearly reflects the preoccupations of society in this era (although I know it doesn’t achieve the New Testament’s goal of forgiveness). It is best described with a newly popular German word: schaudenfreude, defined as feeling pleasure at someone else’s misfortune.

We live in an aggrieved age, and I am no exception. Fox News worked hard to “own the libs,” and did it with a smug smile. Some retribution for lying to millions of people and helping incite an insurrection was due. I looked forward to conservative icons such as Tucker Carlson (now off the air), Sean Hannity, and others being forced to admit on the record that they knew they were telling lies as part of their “fair and balanced” reporting.

But a mere $787 million allowed them to escape unscathed and proceed down the road toward continuing political influence and power as well as monetary profit. My schaudenfreude was dampened, and my outrage heightened when the statement following the settlement continued Fox’s masterful use of “doublespeak.”

George Orwell’s book Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) brought many new words and concepts into the language in 1949. An online publication states that Orwell saw tyranny in “Spain, Germany, the Soviet Union, and other countries … where there was little, if any freedom, and where hunger, forced labor, and mass execution were common.” Fascist, Nazi, and communist governments combined physical brutality with manipulative language and constant surveillance to seize and retain power and commit atrocities on barely-imaginable scales. It was their false and hateful words that led so many to condone and participate in sub-human behavior.

To illustrate these dangers, Orwell invented a government headed by “Big Brother” where the control of language was a key strategy for controlling the people. The Ministry of Truth specialized in distorting history and the basic meanings of words. Combining “Newspeak” and “doublethink,” they informed people that “War is Peace,” “Freedom is Slavery,” and “Ignorance is Strength.”

The Fox News statement after the settlement might have come directly from Orwell’s Ministry of Truth, stating that even though Fox made false claims about Dominion, it demonstrated “Fox’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards” and it wanted the country to “move forward” from “divisive” issues. In Orwell’s world, the Fox Ministry of Truth would tell us that “the lowest standards are the highest” and “moving backward is moving forward.”

There’s nothing new about governments and organizations using language that is “grossly deceptive, evasive, euphemistic, confusing, or self-centered” according to the National Council of Teachers of English (NCET). They have awarded a Doublespeak Award yearly since 1974 for the most outrageous and damaging example in the U.S. Winners include nearly every president since then, members of the U.S. military and CIA, and the oil and tobacco industries. Since 2016, a flood of doublespeak from Donald Trump and his supporters (including Kellyanne Conway’s reference to “alternative facts”) dominated the award so thoroughly that the NCET is now trying to reimagine the award to fit our current times.

Why is the Fox News doublespeak so dangerous for Americans? In most previous awards, the “grossly deceptive” language rationalized or minimized wars in other countries (Vietnam, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Iraq, Afghanistan) or threats to Americans’ health and lifestyle. But in this case, Fox’s dedication to the lowest journalistic standards and its devotion to promoting divisive issues were turned against our own government and political processes.

People were falsely told so many times that the election was stolen by faulty voting systems like Dominion’s and corrupt election officials that even after Fox’s internal e-mails showed their knowledge of the “Big Lie,” a March 2023 poll showed that 63% of Republicans and near-Republicans still believe the election was illegitimate. Many of them (48%) say their belief is based on “suspicion only” rather than “solid evidence.”

The seeds of distrust sown by the lowest journalistic standards of Fox have sprouted and taken root. It’s not just me that feels aggrieved and dissatisfied with our government and society. We are in a “crisis of confidence,” (a phrase used by Jimmy Carter) in which we expect and accept a level of doublespeak that makes our everyday belief in American government and society an irrational act of faith rather than a necessary foundation for our country.

Allen Woods is a freelance writer, author of the Revolutionary-era historical fiction novel “The Sword and Scabbard,” and Greenfield resident. His column appears regularly on a Saturday. Comments are welcome here or at awoods2846@gmail.com.

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