sanewashing

First we had whitewashing. The set of washings that follow include pink washing (or rainbow washing), humane washing and greenwashing.  The term sanewashing was coined in 2007 by an American academic, Dale Carrico.  But it was a word that was desperately needed this year in which Trump won the Presidency and so increased markedly in frequency.  It is the attempt by the media or other commentators to turn bizarre and sometimes incoherent outbursts into apparently rational suggestions  and package them for consumption by the public in a fashion that makes them seem normal and sensible.  So far we have been more concerned with greenwashing but with an election looming sanewashing may come to the fore. We don’t quite have a Trump to contend with since Dutton does a good job of sanewashing his ideas himself.  He makes a small nuclear reactor sound like a pleasant Christmas present to the community.