Hate propaganda need not be internally coherent to be effective
Evidence
The contradictions of Orientalism appeared in a vicious and dehumanizing new form. Now Serb Orientalists had come up with the Islamist vizier, without the slightest embarrassment over the fact that modern Islamist ideologues believe in a state run by religious scholars and despise as corrupt and anti-Islamic the former imperial Ottoman structure with its sultans and viziers which collapsed in World War I. Similarly, the language of hate lacks even a basic concern with plausibility. Thus Susak claimed that i io,ooo Bosnian Muslims were studying fundamentalism in Egypt-a number that would represent 5 percent of the entire Bosnian Muslim population. — Michael A. Sells, The Bridge Betrayed, 311
Categorization
- XREF: Parallels the moral-panic material: accusations gain power from emotional resonance rather than factual plausibility. — connects to: Hitler’s propaganda doctrine deliberately targeted the least intelligent audience — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 389
- SEED: Essay angle: the Islamist-vizier contradiction as a case study in why debunking hate myths fails — consistency simply isn’t the currency.