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Some people write bloated books and long essays with skilful use of hooks, e.g. Jared Diamond; some others speak in long-drawn sentences with torrents of words, e.g. Noam Chomsky. It reminds me of a tactic politicians use to waste people's time. I came across this word before but I can't retrieve it from either memory or the internet.

George Chen
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    This might be better on english.stackexchange.com, since it's more of a vocabulary question... or at least you're more likely to get an answer there. – Bobson Mar 26 '14 at 20:56
  • Good idea. It is also likely that this word has not made it to the dictionary yet. – George Chen Mar 27 '14 at 00:10
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    Since when is verbosity a means of rhetorical dishonesty? – Publius Mar 27 '14 at 04:27
  • @Avi, your reply is irrelevant. please read the question carefully. – George Chen Mar 27 '14 at 04:36
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    @GeorgeChen Don't patronize me please. I read your question, but I'm not sure I understand it.

    Wait. Filibuster?

     – Publius Mar 27 '14 at 05:04
  • Filibuster is very close, but I'm pretty sure that is not it. – George Chen Mar 27 '14 at 05:07
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    Question has been re-asked here. Voting to close this one. – Bobson Mar 27 '14 at 13:30
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    Answer from the other question is bloviate, which I don't think I've ever run across before. – Bobson Mar 27 '14 at 17:24
  • I settle for bloviate for now. My last impression is this technique was widely recognized during campaign seasons. – George Chen Mar 27 '14 at 17:28
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    @GeorgeChen - Apparently it was just a passing fad in 2000, rather than sticking around. But at the time it may have been more known. – Bobson Mar 27 '14 at 17:31
  • There is some sort of insult to Chomsky and Jared Diamond here. That is too funny! – Razie Mah Mar 28 '14 at 04:41
  • @Razie, read Bertrand Russell, then you will feel what I feel. – George Chen Mar 28 '14 at 17:59
  • @DavidBlomstrom - Chomsky definitely bloviated, but I do not know whether he is a crook or not because I never had the patience to finish any of his books. Diamond is a bloviating crook; I read several of his books from back to back and was infuriated by his skilful use of hooks and suspense. I think we need to coin a new word "chomskydiamond" as the transitive counterpart bloviate. E.g, he stood there and chomskydiamonded the public. – George Chen Mar 11 '17 at 12:01
  • @DavidBlomstrom: How about "chomvelicovskydiamond"? There is a poetic quality in it. "His book chomvelicovskydiamonded the public, but somehow won the 1998 Pulitzer prize for general non-fiction." – George Chen Mar 11 '17 at 13:21
  • Or "marx-tegmark-chom-velicovsky-diamond" I hope someday people will use it without the hyphens. – George Chen Mar 11 '17 at 13:29
  • "Do not send your kids to school, or they will get tegmark-marx-chom-velicovsky-pinker-diamonded." not much of a tongue twister. – George Chen Mar 11 '17 at 17:24
  • Make no mistake, I wouldn't call them evil. They just belong to that class of men who desperately want to look intellectual. – George Chen Mar 11 '17 at 17:45
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    It used to be my passion to dislodge writers like these one by one. I can hit Marx where it hurts, and I think we are even now. Diamond is swiftly swept aside - no much of a fight really. Then I began to notice this bloviating technique whose sole purpose is to consume the readers waking hours ... Nevertheless, I am careful not to make far reaching conclusions. – George Chen Mar 12 '17 at 09:39

5 Answers5

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bloviate

verb
informal

talk at length, esp. in an inflated or empty way.

*Kudos to bib on the English Language & Usage stack exchange.

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George Chen
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Obfuscation may be the word you are looking for. It implies that a thing is being presented, but not necessarily in the most clear manner, often with the intent of deception on key details. That said, this may not be strictly political.

Affable Geek
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  • Maybe but I'm not sure. Obfuscation is aimed to make obscure. The word I'm searching for is aimed to consume people's waking hours. – George Chen Mar 27 '14 at 00:02
  • @GeorgeChen This is literally what you would do if you wanted to waste someones time. Unless you mean something more like talking over someone else, like on TV? – Razie Mah Mar 28 '14 at 04:10
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Somewhat related is the Gish gallop https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gish_gallop where you do an 'argument dump' to overwhelm your opponent.

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This is a bit of a long shot, but:

It reminds me of a tactic politicians use to waste people's time.

This makes me think you're referring to the filibuster. The filibuster is a procedural tool in which a politician will just keep talking and talking in order to prolong debate and prevent the bill from coming to a vote.

Nowadays though, in the US Senate, you don't need to actually talk to filibuster. The procedural filibuster allows politicians to just announce that they are going to filibuster, at which point it takes a super-majority of votes to override the filibuster. However, a recent rules change means that it only takes a normal majority of votes to override a filibuster of a non-judicial presidential nominee.

Publius
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  • Very close. But the tactic in question is also used in blogs and news articles where hooks are skilfully used to keep people reading on and on. – George Chen Mar 27 '14 at 05:19
  • What, like viral headlines and dull articles? I don't think there's a name for that, but that's not a politics question, it's an english one. – Publius Mar 27 '14 at 05:20
  • It's a political one. It aims at distraction rather than deceit. – George Chen Mar 27 '14 at 05:32
  • I'm not totally sure I see the difference, and you're giving examples of its use in areas outside of politics. The English SE is full of people asking if there's a word for something. I don't think this is suited to this site unless it's a technical political term. – Publius Mar 27 '14 at 05:40
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You may also wish to consider the word 'inundate' as in to overwhelm with information.

The lawyers were inundated with useless credit card statements, but there was really one one charge that needed to be disclosed.

Affable Geek
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  • Good one. Still,there are occasions when one feels inundated but the materials that overwhelm this person are nevertheless necessary. – George Chen Mar 28 '14 at 17:51