Difference between revisions of "Demonization"

Latest revision as of 19:08, 15 August 2020

About

Demonization is a form of fearmongery which unifies the speaker's group by blaming its troubles on imaginary threat, towards which all ire can be safely directed.

In addition to the obvious utility to up-and-coming powermongers, it can also be used by established power-brokers for effecting political change without going through appropriate political channels – thus avoiding the accountability which is normally associated with such channels and which might therefore make those actions more difficult to accomplish that way. In more colloquial terms, it enables the powerful to get what they want without getting their hands dirty.

Characteristics

Due to the strong negativity of the word "demonization", it is often used as a way of shutting down legitimate criticism. It is therefore important to define both what it is and what it isn't.

The key elements of demonization are counterfactualism applied to a specific individual or group.

It may or may not call for circumvention of proper due process (vigilantism), and it may or may not be widely spread (propaganda).

Although demonizing speech may use the words "justice" or "fair", this is always in the context of calling for actions that are retributional rather than fair or justice-seeking. If a viable accusation (i.e. one that is not clearly counterfactual) concludes with a true call for justice, including all the due process thereof, it is not demonization.

Qualifiers

Note the first requirement; accusations cannot constitute demonization if they are true. For instance, it would not be demonization to describe Nazi detainment centers as "death camps" or to say that Hitler was evil.

Although demonization is primarily a tool used by the powerful, it can also be applied within smaller contexts. For instance, if one person on a discussion forum falsely tries to convince others that some group or individual (on or off the forum) is malicious (or evil) and that some action should be taken, the former is arguably demonizing the latter on that forum.

As a Criticism

In order to lay a legitimate claim that one party has been demonizing another, it is necessary to show specific examples where the former has made false statements about the latter. If there are not any ready examples, then it might be best to less loaded but more descriptive phraseology such as "shows a pattern of false accusations against" or "regularly claims that [target] should be [form of retribution] using false data and bad reasoning". See Issuepedia:Arguing for additional guidelines.

Examples

The LDS/Catholic campaign against gay marriage which led to the passage of California's Proposition 8 (later overruled by the US Supreme Court) was heavily based on false statements about homosexuals.

Links

Reference

Wikipedia: emphasizes the term's roots in theology, only touching briefly on modern political usage
Conservapedia , of course, demonizes liberals by showing them as the demonizers... (irony meter explodes: second example is John Edwards "demonizing" Ann Coulter -- but take a look at a few of her quotes...)
~~dKosopedia~~: no equivalent page as of 2009-06-19 (confirmed 2010-08-01); see search
RationalWiki has a pretty succinct summary
~~SourceWatch~~: no equivalent page as of 2009-06-19 (confirmed 2010-08-01); see search

News

Notes

Some of the finer definitional points emerged from this conversation.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-==Overview==
+<hide>
-[[category:manipulative tools]][[category:power structure tools]][[Demonization]] is a [[manipulative tool]] which unifies the speaker's group by blaming its troubles on another group, towards which all ire can be safely directed.
+[[page type::article]]
+[[thing type::concept]]
+[[category:manipulative tools]]
+[[category:power structure tools]]
+</hide>
+[[File:YD7bH.jpg|thumb]]
+==About==
+[[Demonization]] is a form of [[fearmongery]] which unifies the speaker's group by blaming its troubles on [[imaginary threat]], towards which all ire can be safely directed.
-It is a technique used by [[power-broker]]s for effecting political change without going through appropriate political channels -- thus avoiding the [[accountability]] which is normally associated with such channels and which might therefore make those actions more difficult to accomplish that way.
+In addition to the obvious utility to up-and-coming [[powermonger]]s, it can also be used by established [[power-broker]]s for effecting political change without going through appropriate political channels &ndash; thus avoiding the [[accountability]] which is normally associated with such channels and which might therefore make those actions more difficult to accomplish that way. In more colloquial terms, it enables the powerful to get what they want without getting their hands dirty.
-In more colloquial terms, it is a way for the powerful to get what they want without getting their hands dirty.
 ===Characteristics===
 Due to the strong negativity of the word "demonization", it is often used as a way of shutting down legitimate criticism. It is therefore important to define both what it ''is'' and what it ''isn't''.
-It generally includes all of the following:
+The key elements of demonization are ''[[counterfactualism]]'' applied to a ''specific individual or group''.
-# some form of [[rhetorical deception]]:
-#* emotional manipulation substituted for sound reasoning, or
-#* erroneous premises asserted as fact
-# target falsely portrayed as a major threat
-# this disinformation is widely spread
-# calling for circumvention of proper due process
-Although demonizing speech may use the words "justice" or "fair", this is always in the context of calling for actions that are [[retribution]]al rather than [[fair]] or [[justice]]-seeking. If an accusation concludes with a true call for justice, including all the due process thereof, it is not demonization.
+It may or may not call for circumvention of proper [[due process]] ([[vigilantism]]), and it may or may not be widely spread ([[propaganda]]).
+Although demonizing speech may use the words "justice" or "fair", this is always in the context of calling for actions that are [[retribution]]al rather than [[fair]] or [[justice]]-seeking. If a viable accusation (i.e. one that is not clearly counterfactual) concludes with a true call for justice, including all the due process thereof, it is not demonization.
 ===Qualifiers===
 Note the first requirement; accusations cannot constitute demonization if they are [[true]]. For instance, it would not be demonization to describe Nazi detainment centers as "death camps" or to say that Hitler was [[evil]].
@@ Line 22: / Line 23: @@
 Although demonization is primarily a tool used by the powerful, it can also be applied within smaller contexts. For instance, if one person on a discussion forum falsely tries to convince others that some group or individual (on or off the forum) is malicious (or [[evil]]) and that some action should be taken, the former is arguably demonizing the latter on that forum.
 ===As a Criticism===
-Using "demonization" as a legitimate criticism is difficult; a much better charge to lay is to show specific examples where the target has taken harmful actions. See [[Issuepedia:Arguing]] for guidelines. It's best to use this term only when you have a set of examples ready to point to. Otherwise, less loaded phraseology such as "shows a pattern of false accusations against" or "regularly claims that ''[target]'' should be ''[form of retribution]'' using false data and bad reasoning".
+In order to lay a legitimate claim that one party has been demonizing another, it is necessary to show specific examples where the former has made false statements about the latter. If there are not any ready examples, then it might be best to less loaded but more descriptive phraseology such as "shows a pattern of false accusations against" or "regularly claims that ''[target]'' should be ''[form of retribution]'' using false data and bad reasoning".  See [[Issuepedia:Arguing]] for additional guidelines.
-===Edge Cases===
-There are some edge cases, like the [[Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|LDS]]/[[Catholic]] campaign against [[gay marriage]] which led to the passage of Proposition 8; although action was taken through purely legislative channels, it was also pretty clearly demonization:
+==Examples==
-* it removed rights which had been explicitly granted by prior state law, which had been passed through due process
+* The [[Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|LDS]]/[[Catholic]] campaign against [[gay marriage]] which led to the passage of California's Proposition 8 (later overruled by the US Supreme Court) was heavily based on false statements about homosexuals.
-* it went against the larger law of the [[US Constitution]] in that homosexuals were singled out for deprivation of specific rights granted to others
-* logistically, it involved a coalition of people from ''outside'' a jurisdiction joining their resources to influence a vote ''within'' that jurisdiction, using large amounts of rhetorical deception (including outright lies) to portray gay marriage as a threat
 ==Links==
 ===Reference===