Institutional state backing converts Orientalist myths into authoritative truth claims

Evidence

The hold these instruments have on the mind is increased by the institutions built around them. For every Orientalist, quite literally, there is a support system of staggering power, considering the ephemerality of the myths that Orientalism propagates. This system now culminates in the very institutions of the state. To write about the Arab Oriental world, therefore, is to write with the authority of a nation, and not with the affirmation of a strident ideology but with the unquestioning certainty of absolute truth backed by absolute force. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 777

Categorization

• XREF: Directly anticipates Foucault’s power/knowledge and Gramsci’s hegemony — ideological myths gain traction only through institutional apparatus. — connects to: Court legitimation converts false anti-Muslim claims into citable authority
• SEED: Angle: how weak myths acquire absolute force through state institutional backing — a mechanism paper tracing Orientalism’s move from scholarship to state policy.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 777