Could the word 'Infidel' be an example of thought-terminating cliché?
From WIKI
“The language of the totalist environment is characterized by the thought-terminating cliché. The most far-reaching and complex of human problems are compressed into brief, highly reductive, definitive-sounding phrases, easily memorized and easily expressed. These become the start and finish of any ideological analysis.”
- Lifton, Robert J. (1989)
OR, better yet lady's and gentleman, we may be looking at an excellent example of Newspeak! A thought-terminating cliché that has slowly evolved into a single word (the penultimate goal of all Newspeak enthusiasts - triumph being Newspeak without any cognitive thought at all). In a few hundred more years 'Infidel' will probably have been replaced by Unbeliever. Oh, gee, wouldn't the "Islamic world" (whatever that is) be ever so doubleplusgood with such a fine word as Unbeliever! Oh wait *snap!*
Lastly, that's one thing Sciforums does do in the religious forum, at least I think, is break thought-terminating clichés and Newspeak. And, populations under the cultural imprinting of Islamic Dictatorships do display some Orwellian Newspeak behaviors, being terrified to "Think", I mean really question, the invisible Big Brother Allah's reality.
Impressive!
From WIKI
A thought-terminating cliché is a commonly used phrase, sometimes passing as folk wisdom, used to quell cognitive dissonance. Though the phrase in and of itself may be valid in certain contexts, its application as a means of dismissing dissent or justifying fallacious logic is what makes it thought-terminating.
“The language of the totalist environment is characterized by the thought-terminating cliché. The most far-reaching and complex of human problems are compressed into brief, highly reductive, definitive-sounding phrases, easily memorized and easily expressed. These become the start and finish of any ideological analysis.”
- Lifton, Robert J. (1989)
OR, better yet lady's and gentleman, we may be looking at an excellent example of Newspeak! A thought-terminating cliché that has slowly evolved into a single word (the penultimate goal of all Newspeak enthusiasts - triumph being Newspeak without any cognitive thought at all). In a few hundred more years 'Infidel' will probably have been replaced by Unbeliever. Oh, gee, wouldn't the "Islamic world" (whatever that is) be ever so doubleplusgood with such a fine word as Unbeliever! Oh wait *snap!*
Lastly, that's one thing Sciforums does do in the religious forum, at least I think, is break thought-terminating clichés and Newspeak. And, populations under the cultural imprinting of Islamic Dictatorships do display some Orwellian Newspeak behaviors, being terrified to "Think", I mean really question, the invisible Big Brother Allah's reality.
Impressive!
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