Appealing to the Unconscious with Highly Emotive, Visceral Images
Rajiva gives numerous examples where Arab society is misrepresented as inherently violent, tribal and uncivilized. At the same time Islamic insurgents are made to appear as monstrous as possible by 1) exaggerating their alleged religious fundamentalism and negating their rational motivation (poverty and US occupation and atrocities) for their terrorist activities and 2) defining them as evil by nature, with subhuman descriptors (animals, insects, slime, etc). She also describes a trick of logic played by government/media propagandists, whereby the US killing of thousands of civilians is "rational" because it's (supposedly) accidental. In contrast acts of violence by militants are portrayed as "irrational" because they occur in response to genuine grievances.
Lila Rajiva is a journalist and author residing in Baltimore. She has degrees in economics and English from India, as well as a Master's degree from Johns Hopkins University, where she did doctoral work in international relations and political philosophy. She has taught at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
4
4
3
