The Great Othering

     I’m sure my Gentle Readers are familiar with the neologism othering. It’s been used in connection with common allegations that some minority group has been targeted for elimination. Supposedly, the targeted group is slathered with propaganda designed to convince the majority that “they are not like us – they are others.” This is used to separate the targets from other human beings morally: i.e., as creatures too dangerous to the rest of us to be tolerated. The withdrawal of tolerance leads to genocide.

     It’s happened. The Jews could tell you all about it. So could Armenian Christians. The inculcation of hostility toward a minority in the majority of a nation is a well-studied dictator’s tactic. If the people’s hatred can be directed toward an identifiable enemy, on whom the woes of the nation can be blamed, the dictator can wield that hatred for his own purposes.

     The late Philip K. Dick wrote a short story around the notion, titled “The Hanging Stranger.” Amazon Studios produced a video based on that story, titled “Kill All Others,” in its Electric Dreams series of tales. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend it unreservedly.

     Clearly, othering is a powerful tool for the aspiring tyrant. But the tactic has never before been applied to the majority of the people of a nation. Before today, that is:

     The establishment Left seems determined to tar its opponents as “terrorists.” There’s the Jan. 6 Committee, which continues to investigate what the Democrats insist was an “insurrection,” despite a complete lack of evidence. There’s the repeated claim (that Biden, Garland, and Christopher Wray, among others, have repeated) that “white supremacists,” by which is meant “Trump supporters,” are the nation’s biggest terror threat. And now a former FBI counterintelligence official has gone the whole way and likened Trump supporters to “violent jihadists.”…

     “Where we are right now,” [NBC News “national security analyst” Frank] Figliuzzi told Nicolle Wallace, is a “cult-like scenario.” The cult wasn’t, however, the group that insists that men such as Rachel Levine and Lia Thomas are women, that there are dozens of genders (including cake), and that Joe Biden is a competent leader; no, as far as this crack former fed was concerned, were those who insisted on reality in the face of those fantasies.

Raw Story reports that Figliuzzi explained that “Trumpism” (it was unclear if this word came from Raw Story or Figliuzzi) had “gone way beyond a political ideology. It is now the identity of a party. But it’s more than that because it’s now become a personal identity for those who consume the ‘Big Lie’ that the grand deception – and I can’t help because of my national security lens that I look at things through, to compare this to what we see in violent jihad.” As if aware of how ridiculous what he was saying really was, Figliuzzi anticipated the question: “What do I mean by that?” Apparently he meant that both Trump supporters and violent jihadis were chasing an illusion:

     Please read it all. Apparently the Legacy Media are set to pump this at their dwindling audiences at full volume. Perhaps they hope it will halt the steady diminution of their audiences. But it just might energize a new pogrom: this time, against persons in the Right.

     Many millions of Americans are politically to the Right of center. By my estimate, we are the majority of the politically engaged population of the country. That’s a huge program of othering…and one hell of a pogrom-in-prospect. But the Usurpers can’t afford for us to know that. Its security lies in keeping us silent and isolated from one another…and what method would be more potent than instilling fear in us of our differently-minded countrymen?

     This subject doesn’t require a lot of analysis. However, it does require vigilance. Sadly, fewer and fewer conservatives pay any attention whatsoever to the Legacy Media. We’ve learned enough about their duplicity not to trust them even in small ways. While that saves us a fair amount of time and stress on our credulity, it also means that the media can work sub rosa to spread their deceits.

     This will not end well. But while it remains possible, do have a nice day.