In the debate on climate, biological diversity, food and other sustainable development issues, we may see toxic communication. Here are 8 toxic technics we may look for, avoid and go beyond:
I: Make invisible, ignore you
II: Make you to laughter, discounting you
III: Keep back information
IV: Always criticise regardless – double punishment
V: Blame guilt, shame and bad conscience on you
VI: Objectify, overgeneralise – «we and them» polarisation, split and rule
VII: Pressure, stalking, forcing, narrow frames, coup over time
VIII: Violence, threat of violence, punishing
Cognitive distortion, bias and dissonance
From we are born, we create cognitive distortions. That is childish unprecise thinking patterns. Hopefully we improve our thought patterns when we grow up. We feel the childish perspective is raspy, cracky, something is lacking and we improve thinking pattern. However we live our lives often with more or less cognitive biases or tendencies, misunderstandings and myths. The cognitive distortions are there still as cognitive biases and may be used unconscious or conscious as power techniques to create toxic communications. When what we think and what we do ar in conflict, we get brain chaos, cognitive dissonance. That is an unpleasant feeling we often have in the climate debate.
More about the 8 toxic technics will follow as a row of blog articles.
Read more in my book: Forbi hersketknikker og fryktkultur
https://www.helgechristie.com/butikk/helge-christies-16-bok-forbi-hersketeknikker