Branding analysis of terrorism as sympathy enforces a period of demanded non-thinking

Evidence

According to an emerging orthodoxy in certain sections of the British media, just about any attempt to offer economic, political or sociological explanation for al-Qaeda’s emergence is tantamount to an expression of sympathy for its aims and methods. As Savonarola has pointed out, the PBL and other reactionaries attempted in the immediate aftermath of Thursday to make the very word “political” a slander as they desperately cast about trying to establish a period of non-reflection in which “politics” and thought could be suspended — a period, that is to say, in which their politics and their non-thinking could be imposed as the default response. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1431

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the observation that official denial of analysis serves power and that suspicion of critical explanation crowds out understanding — parallels censorship-through-labelling dynamics this book repeatedly tracks. — connects to: The cognitive appeal of dichotomous good-versus-evil evaluation distorts ideology research; Ideological labels derive their power from emotional evaluation when cognitive content is thin — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2005; Terrorism coverage substitutes reductive identity explanations for political and historical context. — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race…, 1104 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Terrorism coverage substitutes reductive identity explanations for political and historical context. #corroborates (0.82) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 1104
• Ideological labels derive their power from emotional evaluation when cognitive content is thin #expands (0.80) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2005
• The cognitive appeal of dichotomous good-versus-evil evaluation distorts ideology research #expands (0.78)
• Anti-brand activism makes personal-brand defense self-contradictory #jokes-about (0.75) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 154