Reply #2: “Crimestop" [View All]

[Hannah Bell]

“Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short…at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimical to Ingsoc <“English Socialism,” the official ideology of the totalitarian regime in Oceania>, and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. Crimestop, in short, means protective stupidity.”

The article says the principle applies quite well to media discussions US policy, in which US military aggression, coups, torture, civilian deaths, etc. are called by different names than the same acts when committed by other countries.

Ours = stabilization, peace-keeping, liberation, democracy movement, color revolution, enhanced interrogation techniques, collateral damage, etc.

Such perversions of language aren't mere euphemisms, but part of a near-ubiquitous thought-control system which trains people in an "athleticism of the mind," the ability "at one moment to make the most delicate use of logic and at the next to be unconscious of the crudest logical errors.”

Such as Obama's rationale for not appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the previous administration's use of torture:

"I believe we need to look forward, not back."

A principle which would preclude the prosecution of any crime if extended as a general rule, but which "will be invoked only for crimes committed by the US state, or by the financial oligarchy whose interests that state represents."