false information given out regularly, normally by governments and '...designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable' (Orwell). Techniques of propaganda include false assertion (making something a fact when it is not a fact); fallacy (an argument based on the false assertion); rationalisation (the use of false logic to excuse or justify something bad); obfuscation (the blurring of unpleasant realities or the truth with many long and complicated words and phrases); euphemism (the use of a neutral or pleasant word to cloak a bad reality, e.g. calling it collateral damage when bombers kill civilians; and emotional arousal (the use of emotive words to stir up an audience).