Tactical Freudianism

Butch Leghorn Culture, Memes

A form of sophistry is to reduce all opposing viewpoints to hate or fear. I call this Tactical Freudianism.

Tactical Freudianism: the psychopathologization of the mental state or motivation of an opponent.

I see Tactical Freudianism as a variety of ad hominem, where rather than attack the argument, you simply label the opponent’s psychology as pathological. Just is an ad hominem is a label applied to ‘the man’ rather than the argument, Tactical Freudianism is a label applied to the psychological state or motivations of the arguer. In the scale of sophistry, Tactical Freudianism is a step above the basic-bitch tactic of calling your opponent a racist or a fascist. It’s still nothing more than sophistry.

Tactical Freudianism incorporates elements of gaslighting, where you attempt to convince someone that their sane judgement is actually mad. To label an argument as hate or fear or x-phobia, is to provide false information with the purpose of making the opponent doubt his own memory, perception or sanity.

Those who understand that Muslims are a clear and present danger to the West are Islamophobes. They are gaslighted into believing that their perception of the danger of Muslim invasion is due to faulty memory, perception or sanity.

We see this tactic applied widely, in all mediums. Tactical Freudianism. Call it when you see it.

Note @Outsideness sent me a tweet reminding me of Adorno, with a link to this Wiki page. Excellent addition.

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gaslighting

8 thoughts on “Tactical Freudianism”

  4. I remember when I first came to the internet, I thought teachers must be closet conservatives because they were so authoritarian.

    I stopped thinking this because it was wrong, but A) it didn’t come from nowhere and B) it’s worth thinking about what happens to those who don’t have a habit of changing their mind just because it happens to be wrong.

    Also notable: this is proto-SJewery. Vox’s Third Law: they always project. Low-church proggies are largely driven by hate and fear. They hate blacks, for example. None too fond of women either.

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  5. “Tactical Freudianism is a step above the basic-bitch tactic of calling your opponent a racist or a fascist. It’s still nothing more than sophistry.”

    Thing is, it’s often accurate. A lot (perhaps most) of what people say in the context of a political argument, even extending to the beliefs and positions they hold, is an acting out of their personality tics, their reactivities and mental pathology. Alt Right does it too, all the time. What do you call Pathological Altruism? Cuckservative? Psychologizing the opponent is just part of the game. Like any rhetorical tactic, it can be used in a bogusy way, or a skillful way. Its memetic warfare.

    Is it high minded and rational, or even respectful? No. But saying its bad because ‘they’ do it is failing to see the forest for the trees.

    Of course we want the best ARGUMENTS too, but keep the dank memes flowin…

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