this post was submitted on 16 May 2024
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[–] [email protected] 25 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

I don't think either of these are really thought terminating cliches inherently. The phrase is more for their usage as a rhetorical device to end arguments in certain ways. They become them when they are "used to intentionally dismiss dissent or justify fallacious logic" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought-terminating_clich%C3%A9)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Ending an argument often involves dismissing dissent. The end of an argument is also the end of thought on that argument. You’re just rewording the original term, that you’re arguing against.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

It ends the argument it doesn't complete the argument.

You've essentially just stopped talking about the topic. No consensus has been arrived at. Possibly because one was not possible.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Yes, exactly what the screenshot says.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It's not productive to argue endlessly.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I was just joking about arguing endlessly, by carrying on an argument.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

*though

Your argument is in shambles.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

The Wikipedia article has multiple conflicting definitions, including:

"any use of the language, especially repeated phrases, to ward off forbidden thoughts”
"Claim Y sounds catchy. Therefore, claim Y is true."
"the start and finish of any ideological analysis"

The problem is that the term is just BS, in part because the idea it was made to support is complete BS.

Defining 'Totalitarianism' was cold war project of western academia, trying to come up with a way to say that the nazis and soviets were the same. They weren't though. Only far right US Nationalists still claim this. The term has very low analytical use, so once the pressure to create this propaganda evaporated with the end of the USSR the term quickly became defunct.

Thought terminating cliches was coined by a psychologist in ’61 trying to claim that 'totalist thought is characterized by thought terminating cliches.' To translate: the west has reasoned ideology, everyone else just spouts cliches.