Euphemistic acronyms like PAPs obscure forced displacement’s violence.

Evidence

The official terminology favored by the World Bank (for decades the core backer of megadams in the global South) is PAPs—Projected-Affected People. This bloodless, technocratic, deviously neutral term obscures the fact that those affected are inevitably negatively affected—often doomed—by the project in question. “Project affected” translates as involuntary eviction, loss of land, community dispersal, and plummeting life prospects. To cut through the pseudoneutrality of such bureaucratic jargon, big dam opponents have preferred a more direct language that underscores the violence involved, advancing terms that range from “oustees” (an Indian neologism that has since garnered international currency) to Scudder’s “developmental refugees.” — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 455

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines PAPs, oustees, and developmental refugees—terms this chapter’s whole argument turns on.
• XREF: Builds on ch1’s rhetorical unmasking of euphemism and ch8’s point that corporations manufacture doubt—here the state/bank jargon plays the same masking role. — connects to: State violence is laundered through euphemisms that mask its banned nature — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2148; Technocratic military jargon euphemistically erases civilian bodies from weapons’ names — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 669; Bureaucratic-juridical vocabulary itself euphemizes the violence of drone strikes. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 491

Broader Connections

• Bureaucratic-juridical vocabulary itself euphemizes the violence of drone strikes. #exemplifies (0.90) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 491
• State violence is laundered through euphemisms that mask its banned nature #expands (0.85) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2148
• Technocratic military jargon euphemistically erases civilian bodies from weapons’ names #exemplifies (0.85) — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 669