Carson’s ‘unselective bludgeon’ exposes the false binary of precision rhetoric

Evidence

More apt is Rachel Carson’s metaphor of the “unselective bludgeon,” which she invokes to describe purportedly target-specific insecticides. Writing in the aftermath of death-camp science and the science behind Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Carson was all too aware how readily the civilizational rhetoric of progress and precision could cloak barbarous consequences. In exposing the long-term perils of unchecked techno-boosterism, she stressed how often the precision pitch relies on reckless promises of miraculous, merciful selectivity. — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 613

Categorization

• DEFINE: ‘Unselective bludgeon’ as a definitional counter-term to precision rhetoric is a useful analytic tool for the eco-justice strands.
• XREF: Connects to ecofeminism strand: Carson’s science attacked as female hysteria (ch. 29) links her insecticide critique with the Showalter Gulf War dismissal below. — connects to: Discourse exceeds ideology by refusing the true-false distinction about facts

Broader Connections

• Discourse exceeds ideology by refusing the true-false distinction about facts #expands (0.72)