perceptual industry
n.— «Spin is not just a technique. It is not just a political phenomenon. It permeates our culture and our daily life. And it’s an industry—almost a sector of the economy. That one day’s stories quoted lobbyists, public relations specialists and professional “damage control” experts. If computers and communications go by the acronym “IT,” for information technology, the perceptual industry might be “MT,” for misinformation technology.» —“Life in the Spin Cycle” by Michael Kinsley Washington Post Mar. 6, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
What if, instead of being an inanimate object, a dictionary were alive? That’s the idea behind a lavishly illustrated new children’s book called The Dictionary Story (Bookshop|Amazon) by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. This is part of a...
Cat hair may be something you brush off, but cat hair is also a slang term that means “money.” In the same way, cat beer isn’t alcoholic — some people use cat beer as a joking term for “milk.” And imagine walking on a...