Recently, I came across an article that I think is interesting and useful. It highlights a rhetorical device called "accusation in a mirror" (AiM). The article is mainly about genocide and the author notes that, very often, the preferred method of preparing for, and then igniting, a genocide is to claim that members of the target group are going to do what, in fact, you want your followers to do. “They plan to kill us!” is understood as a call for “them” to be massacred (hence the mirror metaphor). The author writes: “Before one's enemies accuse one truthfully, one accuses them falsely of the same misdeed." He makes a good case that this kind of rhetoric can be a dependable predictor of violence: “AiM has six interrelated functions: to shock, to silence, to threaten, to insulate, to legitimize, and, finally, to motivate or incite.”
When I think about it, the AiM is often used for a range of purposes. For example, Donald Trump seeks to propagate fake news so first he accuses his critics of producing fake news. When he intends to steal an election, he accuses the other side of stealing an election.
Elites seek to enhance their freedom, power and influence so they accuse people who stand in their way of constituting an elite. People want to produce a chilling effect on criticism of themselves so they accuse their critics of trying to silence them.
In education
In relation to education and critical thinking, I think the AiM is a phenomenon that teachers should draw students’ attention to. Teachers could, for example, suggest that for every sweeping accusation in civic discourse, students should not only check the veracity of the claim but also attend to the possibility of a mirror image in the behaviour of the accuser.
Sources
FREE ARTICLE: Kenneth L. Marcus, Accusation in a Mirror. https://lawecommons.luc.edu/luclj/vol43/iss2/5/
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