The Mask of War and the War of Masks
The Fabricated Culture War Gets Deadly
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21684427 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Patricia Roberts-Miller, Patricia Roberts‐miller (0009-0002-9995-6282, The University of Texas at Austin, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 111-127 |
| Publication date | 2023-01-02 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Javnost - The Public (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1318-3222 • E-ISSN: 1854-8377 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13183222.2023.2168954 |
| OpenAlex | W4324149186 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 17 |
In the US, mask wearing, while opposed and evaded by people all over the political spectrum (albeit not equally), was disproportionately associated with reactionary political affiliation, especially in its most demagogic and violent forms. Anti-mask demagoguery associated mask wearing and mask mandates with communism, Nazism, satanism, genocide, suicide and a war on America. This article argues that this demagoguery was not unique to masks or COVID-19, but the rhetorical consequence of the pro-GOP strategic repurposing of twentieth-century anti-communist demagoguery. This demagoguery (which arose after World War I) framed all policy disagreements, not as issues with multiple legitimate perspectives that could be argued qua policies, but as battles in an apocalyptic war between good and evil, and therefore beyond normal political disagreement
Aesthetics · Art · Communism · Genocide · Just war theory · Literature · Nazism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Reactionary · Rhetorical question · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law · Social and Cultural Dynamics
The State of Exception
The Villain Unmasked
Rhetoric and Demagoguery
Competitive Authoritarianism
Burning Down the House
The Cold War as Rhetoric
What Is Populism
Affective polarization, local contexts and public opinion in America
Belief in 'Armageddon Theology' and Willingness to Risk Nuclear War
Mask Refusal Backlash
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2025 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |