Popular ‘us versus them’ discourse can be recoded to support the power bloc

Evidence

The “clash of civilizations” rhetoric therefore became dominant in the aftermath of 9/11 and was the ideological basis for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well domestic attacks on Muslims and Arabs. For a while it appeared that the neocons were unstoppable—but they overplayed their hand. During its first term, the Bush administration built a “coalition of the willing” to invade Iraq, rejecting criticisms from allies it derogatorily labeled “old Europe.” The war on Iraq, however, did not go the way the neocons wanted it to. Instead of greeting US forces as liberators, the Iraqi people resisted and rejected US hegemony. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 421 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Populism can be mobilized either against or in service of the power bloc; Imagined unity terms like nation and consensus mask class antagonism; Dominant ideology recruits the dominated by neutralizing rival ideologies’ antagonism (+2 more)

Related

• Clash-of-civilizations rhetoric ideologically legitimized both foreign wars and domestic attacks (similarity 0.86)
• The Kite Runner’s binary oppositions calcify an America-versus-Afghanistan divide (similarity 0.84)
• Juxtaposing contending ideologies lets thrillers move beyond war-on-terror binaries. (similarity 0.84)
• Revolutionary rhetoric can mask active counterrevolutionary alliances (similarity 0.82)
• The War on Terror was ideologically framed as a civilizational clash (similarity 0.82)
• Grand civilizational rubrics invent false collective identities that enable deadly conflicts (similarity 0.82)
• Cultural brilliance can coincide with and mask political and military decadence (similarity 0.80)
• Populism can be mobilized either against or in service of the power bloc (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Populism can be mobilized either against or in service of the power bloc #corroborates (0.90)
• Dominant ideology recruits the dominated by neutralizing rival ideologies’ antagonism #expands (0.55)
• Clash-of-civilizations rhetoric ideologically legitimized both foreign wars and domestic attacks #exemplifies (0.50) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 421
• Imagined unity terms like nation and consensus mask class antagonism #complicates (0.40)