What does “othering” mean as you’re using it?
Any time someone perceives another person as fundamentally different than themselves it is othering, but I’m talking about when people start trying to build a consensus that anyone who supports A, is opposed to B, believes C or voted for D is unamerican/a bigot/wants to destroy everything our society stands for/insert any big leap towards a conclusion assuming ill intentions.
Arguments over gun control and sexual assault have taken the tone of “If you don’t believe like I do you are the enemy of all that is good and decent.” The chatter surrounding the upcoming election in my area is filled with these sort of hysterics. I am beginning to wonder if memes are best used as tools of othering.
I don’t know if anyone else has read Amusing Ourselves to Death, but one of the points in the book is about how the medium determines the message/metaphor. Memes are possibly the most stunningly simple and elegant tool for othering I’ve ever seen. But I may be geeking out too much on this one. 😉
Underestimating the enemy is the first step toward losing a war. The second step is overestimating yourself.
Dark Future, that is dead on. There are a lot of assumptions about certain folk being clueless about guns and that is incredibly dangerous.