Deploying technical jargon in public meetings functions as a silencing tactic against residents

Evidence

This tactic played on the lack of sophistication of the Chester residents and effectively silenced them. As one resident remarked, “Every meeting we left feeling like our tail was between our legs, because they always tried to make us think that what was happening was not happening.” — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up, 235 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Professor Gerald Grow (2012) has written brief guidelines called “How to Write ‘Official,’” which provides a set of rules on how to communicate opaque-ly and misinformatively. These rules, which specify the nine top features of good euphemistic writing, include: Put it in the passive voice and delete the agent of the actions; inflate with terminology that does not add meaning; build in noun strings; add a qualifier of uncertain relation to the original statement; add noun strings and terminology to the qualifier; separate related words; equivocate and obfuscate; cover your tracks and make yourself look good. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 373 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source
• XREF: connects to: Even after residents mastered technical vocabulary, officials continued to dismiss them; Technical jargon functions as a silencing weapon against unschooled residents — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up: Environmental…, 235; Passive voice and jargon are teachable techniques for hiding agency — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 373 (+2 more)

Related

• Technical jargon functions as a silencing weapon against unschooled residents (similarity 0.94)
• Mastering technical vocabulary does not overcome official disregard (similarity 0.79)
• Passive voice and jargon are teachable techniques for hiding agency (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Technical jargon functions as a silencing weapon against unschooled residents #corroborates (0.95) — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up, 235
• Passive voice and jargon are teachable techniques for hiding agency #expands (0.90) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 373
• Euphemistic language converts recognized harms into neutral technical categories #expands (0.80) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1651
• Passive voice and inflated jargon constitute teachable techniques for opaque writing #expands (0.75)