There's a historic German brand of chocolate called KINDERSCHOKOLADE, which could be literally translated as "children's chocolate".

Which would, however, be wrong: It's not chocolate made esp. for children - they even used to advertise the "healthy" milky filling! - and I once heard a rumour that the name came to be by accident, deriving from its inventor being a Mr. Kind or similar name. Once the chocolate factory named the chocolate that way, they at once made the fake healthy-children orientation the marketing strategy. The misdirection - though reduced by legal constraint! - still works today, since you always have a hugely pleased boy (until recently) holding up the choc sticks on the box covers, with a full glass of milk - so good for you! - nearby.

I bought some the other day, and was reminded of this semantic scam, and realised that this is how a lot of hyped news - as in the real "fake news" as propagated in the West now by many populist-right-leaning/screaming/tweeting politicians - works.

Something sounds like something likeable and safe(r), but in the end is a monstrous non sequitur.

Some current examples:

• In Germany you can't buy once-normal prepaid sim chips for your mobile phone any more. I mean the kind where you pay once, stick in the chip, then use the phone in any way you want until the prepaid "charge" is used up, then "recharge". All telecomm companies here now only offer a fixed-rate monthly "prepaid" rate, where a monthly recharge is expected from you, otherwise the card stops working. The only real difference to a normal-tariffed contract is that you can cancel this one at once by no longer paying! Seems to me the cartel watchdogs were asleep here!! ("Normal" prepaid is still available in many other countries, e.g. mobile-savvy South Africa!)

As long as all sweet-toothed consumers of these fantasies love 'em! And keep buying this "healthy" stuff in droves, please.