Rat head duck neck*
- When an official group (government, corporation etc.) proclaim that one thing is the truth, despite the fact that everyone knows it not to be true.
I learned about this phrase when reading about Chinese internet slang (sadly I can’t find the article). In 2023 a student at a college in China found a rat head in the cafeteria meal, but officials announced that it was actually a “duck neck”.
This phrase is most relevant when an organization or group tightly controls the dissemination of information – so sadly, we may be using it more.
* Yes, its more than one word, but “Word of the Day” sounds better than “Word or Phrase of the Day”