The Centre for Research in Reasoning, Argumentation & Rhetoric along with the PhD in Argumentation Studies at the University of Windsor invite you to a talk by
Professor Yameng Liu, Emeritus Professor, Fujian Normal University, China
“Existential Threat” Meme as a Weaponized Affective Argument
ABSTRACT: In a time when the term “existential threat” keeps popping up in media and academic discourse alike and it is increasingly common to describe virtually everything as being “weaponized,” weaponized claims of existential threats – those deployed strategically to target certain socio-cultural group or institution for political goals – call for close attention from scholars of rhetoric and argumentation.
Popular especially with opinion makers and politicians, such claims are mostly made where issues pertaining to intergroup conflicts are at their most consequential. An investigation into the substantial purchase they have offered in shaping public opinion results in some findings not without theoretical significance. In most contexts of its weaponized application, the “existential threat” tag functions not just as a claim to be substantiated, but as a self-proving presumption and a foregone conclusion. However, such a self-contained argument serves not to induce adherence to, but to generate “affective resonances” or to evoke empathy with, what is being argued for. It is, in other words, an affective argument.
To label a threat “existential” necessarily heightens what psychologists call “mortality salience” in the audience’s awareness, provoking an urge for defending their own cultural ingroup and disparaging outgroup members, which in turn leads to an escalation of intergroup conflict. Given the more and more affectively polarizing realities we are facing, it is by no means accidental that the “existential threat” tag should have become a prominent argument du jour. As an examination of this representative case might suggest, how theorization of argumentation should adapt itself to the socio-political new normal remains an issue to be addressed.
September 13, 2024
3:00 p.m.
Chrysler Hall North, 1163
All Welcome
Reception to follow