Skip to main content

stress and duress

Newspeak for torture, used by the CIA and its allies. "Stress and duress" tactics are used in interrogations, and refer to a variety of tortures and forms of mistreatment which the CIA thinks are OK. These include:
sleep deprivation
overload of light
complete darkness
stripping and sexually humiliating prisoners
threatening to torture and rape prisoners
threatening prisoners' families
making prisoners stand, sit etc. in uncomfortable positions to induce pain
denial of satisfaction of basic rights and needs such as food, bedding, clothing and exercise
deliberate cultural insensitivity and intolerance
verbal abuse
use of painful "restraint" techniques
beatings
These techniques are widespread also in US prisons, although nominally illegal. They are more widely used in deregulated offshore gulags such as Guantanamo Bay, abu Ghraib in Iraq and Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan.

Don't be fooled - these tactics ARE TORTURE, and are defined as such both by the UN and by experts in trauma. Their role is to break down the sense of personality of the prisoner and to deliberately induce psychological trauma and crisis.

They are directly referred to in CIA handbooks - so the photos from abu Ghraib show a systematic pattern of torture, NOT rogue acts by a few stupid/evil/misguided soldiers.
stress and duress by Andy May 7, 2004

.9.Blind Individuals Are Always Serious When Adjusting Their Own Underwear When Stressed As Well As Being Under Duress.9. 

.9.Blind Individuals Are Always Serious When Adjusting Their Own Underwear When Stressed As Well As Being Under Duress.9.
.9.Blind Individuals Are Always Serious When Adjusting Their Own Underwear When Stressed As Well As Being Under Duress.9.

breatharian 

One whos diet consists of air, light, and prana, with a possible sip of water now and then.
The breatharian has air, light, and prana for food.
breatharian by leena gabor November 8, 2005
Word of the Day on June 3, 2026

A Booger In The Nose Of Progress 

Anything that impedes or otherwise interferes with a process going forward.
"Militarily, that inquest was a booger in the nose of progress."

or

"As far as human rights are concerned, this political infighting is a booger in the nose of progress."
Word of the Day on June 2, 2026

🤡🫵🏻

How to say "you're an idiot/clown" using only emojis.
Person 1: Insert completely incorrect and/or idiotic statement here
Person 2: 🤡🫵🏻
Word of the Day on June 1, 2026
Fogey/fogy /fougi/ sl. (early 18C+, orig. Scot) old-fashioned, stuck-in-the mud.
Person with old fashioned ideas which he is unwilling to change: Come to the disco and stop being such an old fogey!
You think me an old fogeyand an old tory, his thoughtful voice said. I saw three generations since O’Connel’s time. I remember the famine. Do you know that the orange lodges agitated for repeal of the union twenty years before O’Connel did or before the prelates of your communion denounced him as a demagogue? You fenians forget some things. (James Joyce, Ulysses. Penguin Books,1992. p. 38)
fogey by Petyush September 14, 2005
Word of the Day on May 31, 2026