Thought Terminating Cliches

[AspieAndProud]

‘Transwomen are women,’ ‘born in the wrong body,’ ‘better to have a daughter than a dead son’ and ‘literal violence’ appear to be perfect examples of thought terminating cliches, a concept used in the study of ‘thought reform’ (what most of us would call ‘brain washing’). Their purpose is to end a discussion before it actually begins.

A thought-terminating cliché is a commonly used phrase, sometimes passing as folk wisdom, used to end cognitive dissonance (discomfort experienced when one simultaneously holds two or more conflicting cognitions, e.g. ideas, beliefs, values or emotional reactions). Though the phrase in and of itself may be valid in certain contexts, its application as a means of dismissing dissent or justifying fallacious logic is what makes it thought-terminating.

The term was popularized by Robert Jay Lifton in his 1956 book Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism. Lifton said, “The language of the totalist environment is characterized by the thought-terminating cliché. The most far-reaching and complex of human problems are compressed into brief, highly reductive, definitive-sounding phrases, easily memorized and easily expressed. These become the start and finish of any ideological analysis.”

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought-terminating_cliché

Anybody think of other common examples?

I think just the phrase transwomen is a thought blocker
I was a think it would be better to stop using the word woman to describe a man
Perhaps 'trans identifying man' aka TIM is a better word, or how about 'former man' as in 'the artist formerly known as prince' sort of thing

Transwomen are just like any other type of woman, black woman, angry woman, lesbian woman etc.
If you’re afraid of using toilets with men because of male violence then why do you want us to be exposed to that?
So if a woman is infertile, does that mean she’s not a woman either?
So you think all transpeople are rapists?
If you don’t accept that twaw then there’s no point talking to you. BYE!

"Support your sisters not just your cisters"

I was a think it would be better to stop using the word woman to describe a man
Perhaps 'trans identifying man' aka TIM is a better word, or how about 'former man' as in 'the artist formerly known as prince' sort of thing

TIM is a banned term on MN.

I totally agree that a male who transitions to female should not in any way share the word 'woman' even 'transwoman' which used to be categorised at transsexual or transvestite which imo are far clearer and more accurate.

^whoops forgot to bold!

TIM is banned on Mumsnet, really??
Wtf🤯😳
Ok what about FM or former man
Or XM ex man

I don't understand it
TIM is the perfect acronym
trans identifying man
Tells it like it is
does what it says on the tin
what's wrong with that?

Yes I believe Sarah Brown finds 'TIM' particularly offensive - as did the consultant MN sought out for creating their nu roolz..

Trans identifying man....TIM....is perfect.

So we are not allowed to weaponise that in the same way TRAs have weaponised vocabulary around the issue?!

What's offensive about Tim?
It's a completely innocuous word
I don't get it?

What about if we call them Timmys?

There's nothing wrong with TIM apart from the fact it belies you are a non-believer and heretic.

MN has decreed TIM is not an acceptable term to use on these boards to describe particular individuals or groups of people, and it has been generally (begrudgingly) accepted in return for TERF being considered similarly unacceptable here. I don’t think we’ll get deleted for just discussing use of the terms, but it’s not permitted to describe people using them.

FWIW ‘Tim’ is also a sectarian term used as a slur to describe Catholics in Scotland so not exactly completely innocuous anyway.

We should drop ‘gender’ where we can.

I.e. trans or ‘trans people’ not transgender people

Or Simply ‘trans’ instead of transgender woman.

Let’s not help with consolidating their vocabulary.

I also find 'trans' problematic because it reifies a wish. It means 'across' so, for example, someone who is 'transage' is 'across' ages, when in fact they wish or believe they are across ages while their dob tells and everyone else can see this is something in their own mind.

Perhaps instead of gender you could say 'sex stereotypes' and then it might make more sense in that a person is 'across sex stereotypes'.

You could have a 'male across sex stereotypes' or a 'female across sex stereotypes'- a MASS or a FASS

But 'across' still doesn't cut it. It is more 'embracing'. So you could have a male embracing opposite sex stereotypes MEOSS or a female embracing opposite sex stereotypes FEOSS. That would be far more accurate.

I like meoss and feoss

Cwenthryth
Tim is a sectarian insult aimed at Catholics? Did not know that!

Any idea where it comes from?

Scottish football, I think the origins are disputed, one story is it comes from the name of an Irish immigrant gang in Glasgow.

On this whole coming-up-with-new-terms thing - on principle, I’m very wary and would urge caution on foisting labels on others that they do not choose to use to describe themselves, full stop.

I was a think it would be better to stop using the word woman to describe a man

male-bodied person
doesn't have the word woman in it at all

I’m very wary and would urge caution on foisting labels on others that they do not choose to use to describe themselves, full stop

But if you reject the terms they use to describe themselves because they are a) wrong/inaccurate and b) demeaning to oneself - what alternative is there?

The thing with "T**f" is that it is used to shut down conversations where gender critical people are desiring to communicate in a respectful way, it is used in the same way as to shout, "You're a bigot!!" It ends the conversation.

male-bodied person however, holds no such issue. It's quite factual.

The problem with transgenderism is that they want a theory accepted as true without having to prove it. And that's not how a reasonable society works. How is a male-bodied person a woman? They believe that most females are born with a submissive personality and ladybrain essence and yet, the male-bodied people who claim to be women are the most aggressive violent selfish people on the planet.

For example - 'TERF' is annoying because it is inaccurate and assumes an unprovable ideology.

'Male exclusionary radical feminists' would be more accurate. 'MERFs'.

Furthermore, from the outset, 'TERF' was used in a hostile way to shore up an aggressive misogyny, which quickly broke the taboos of men being threatening or violent towards women, of men not respecting women's privacy and dignity, of men claiming women were really the ones with power, strength, control, dominion,etc.

If the term 'MERF' had been coined and was not used to justify violence and aggression towards feminists, I doubt I'd be at all bothered by it.

good point LikeDust you're right, can't forget how that word encourages violence against women, in an attempt to silence their critics.