something I said

I am looking for suggestions of a lexical sort, a label for a concept, a concept about scare-mongering words employed to shut down exploration or discussion.

Examples? I’ve come up with one, so far. I know there are others, and that there ought to be a word or phrase to describe the work these words do. But I can’t come up with any others at the moment.

The one? Unpatriotic. You know, when this word is deployed, that the intent is to malign the character of whoever is unlucky enough to be on the receiving end. You also know that this single word is meant to dismiss any further discussion around a given topic. It is even employed to shift the focus away from other topics and prevent further discussion there too.

So if a radio loudmouth L is discussing the economic views of political candidate X, and says ‘X is unpatriotic’, you know the remark is intended to divert discussion away from the economic issues and focus a wave of irrational abuse on X. What I am looking for is a word to describe the tactic L has employed. Is ’scare-mongering’ the best we can do?

The tactic is partly about stereotyping, but it’s more than that. We can use stereotypes without a clampdown on discussion. We can say ‘hoodie’ or ‘no-go area’ without intending to condemn or instill fear. So part of what I’m looking for is about the intimidation through words. Stereotypes may intimidate, but not necessarily.

Other examples of intimidation might include the use of  ’commie’ (now ‘liberal’), or ‘atheist’, as all-purpose silencers. These are pejorative adjectives, and are a subset of the speech tactics I’m thinking about. They are effective at shutting down discussion, but there are other, less personal ways of getting the same result.

One might think of it as a way of suppressing dissent. If you start labelling something in a way that effectively stops further enquiry, what’s that act called? Stifling enquiry?

That’s pretty close. Let’s try it on another example. Recently, the Policy Exchange suggested that Government roll up current regeneration funding streams and give the money directly to councils to use at their discretion (with Audit Commission scrutiny). The press generally took that as a call to abandon northern cities, as though London tank-wonks had foolishly let the social-economic Darwinist (e.g. Tory) cat out of the bag. In this case, the press effectively shut down discussion of the report by characterising it in emotive terms certain to rile people who already feel let down.

So, did the press stifle enquiry? No, not particularly. I can find the link to Policy Exchange, read the report for myself, and make decisions accordingly. But news editors did stifle debate by pandering to old stereotypes and using other tabloid tactics. A broader discussion on devolved regeneration schemes is worth having, as are discussions on whether Oxbridge can be developed responsibly, sustainably, and on whether the ‘best and brightest’ truly do leave their home towns. Did the press make a clear effort to foster that discussion? Nope, other than a bit from commenteers on the sidelines. 

The reading public is susceptible to this sort of manipulation (though they needn’t be), so they are complicit in constraining the discussion. But if we take the public and the press together, we can say the broader public enquiry was stifled before it began. We can then ask what tactic was used to stifle further enquiry. In this example it’s got to be some sort of misrepresentation for the purposes of reinforcing a stereotype and closing off any further exploration of whether something is or isn’t as described. More broadly, does this discursive tactic have parallels in the way discussions are handled around topics of national security, immigration, economic policy, social welfare, political reform, and any number of hot-button topics? Does it have parallels in the way we think about places, about behaviour and lifestyle, about each other?

I want a word or two for it, not a sentence. What’s the word for it? Pre-emptive scare-mongering? Discursive strangulation? Stifling enquiry seems the best description so far. But maybe there are better words for it.