"Denialism"
 "Denialism"  (enemy image, projection)   | |
|---|---|
Denialism is a term used as a pejorative, mostly by powerful groups, against ideas or people who do not agree with the official narrative.
The power imbalance between "deniers" and people accusing others of it, can be seen in its legal and social status. Several forms of "denialism" is criminalized in many jurisdictions. In any case, people (scientists) being stamped a "denier" of something will often suffer negative career or social consequences.
Official narrative
Wikipedia has a long list of "denialism".[1]
- Holocaust denialism. The mother of them all.
- Srebrenica massacre denialism
- Climate change denialism, from the 2020s evolved to Climate denialism
- HIV/AIDS denialism
- COVID-19 denialism
- Evolution denialism
- GMO denialism, i.e. denying the "safety" of GMOs
- Statins denialism
- Mental illness denialism; including questioning the existence of certain disorders.
- Election denial, especially used for the 2020 presidential election in the US
- Moon landing denialism
- Murder of Seth Rich denialism
- Vaccine denialism; including denying the safety and efficiency of Covid vaccines.
Other uses
The term can be used a bit jocularly, such as with "deep state denialism" in the Wikispooks on Deep state/2017 Popularisation. However, the power imbalance in the term can be seen in how this in no way impedes the careers of those involved in "deep state denialism".
Upton Sinclair wrote:
It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.[2]
“They completely invert the meaning of words and yet claim nothing has changed. They attack reason as irrationality and tell you insanity is sense. They almost literally report 2+2=5 and call anyone who claims it’s 4 a 'five denier'.”
Kit Knightly (5 January 2024) [3]
