The objective-enemy category permanently renews terror as targets shift across categories

Evidence

The chief difference between the despotic and the totalitarian secret police lies in the difference between the “suspect” and the “objective enemy.” The latter is defined by the policy of the government and not by his own desire to overthrow it. He is never an individual whose dangerous thoughts must be provoked or whose past justifies suspicion, but a “carrier of tendencies” like the carrier of a disease. Practically speaking, the totalitarian ruler proceeds like a man who persistently insults another man until everybody knows that the latter is his enemy, so that he can, with some plausibility, go and kill him in self-defense. This certainly is a little crude, but it works—as everybody will know who ever watched how certain successful careerists eliminate competitors. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 950 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Terror’s content is hunting objective enemies once real ones are exterminated; Totalitarian rule shifts from persecuting an objective enemy to randomly selected undesirables; Islamophobic tropes become real violence through perceived enemy images (+8 more)

Related

• Objective enemies are defined by state policy, not by their own actions (similarity 0.88)
• Terror’s content is hunting objective enemies once real ones are exterminated (similarity 0.87)
• Totalitarian terror targets objective enemies rather than actual opponents (similarity 0.81)
• Totalitarian regimes define their enemies ideologically before seizing power, not through police evidence (similarity 0.79)
• Treating enemies as vermin to be exterminated actually amplifies the terror it targets (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Totalitarian rule shifts from persecuting an objective enemy to randomly selected undesirables #expands (0.90)
• Objective enemies are defined by state policy, not by their own actions #expands (0.85) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 950
• Islamophobic tropes become real violence through perceived enemy images #exemplifies (0.80)
• State-perpetuated fear racializes Muslim bodies as terrorist enemies #exemplifies (0.80)
• Each terrorist attack resets Muslims into heightened suspicion and surveillance #exemplifies (0.80) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 666
• Four interconnected groups jointly project the Muslim-enemy image #expands (0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 537
• Anti-terror and immigration policies become conflated in framing Muslims as foreign enemies #qualifies (0.75) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 580