Center for Strategic Communication

[ by Charles Cameron — countering violent extremism, or the State Department goes Godwin, plus beards, good and evil ]
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I’ve found quite a few examples of people posting what I term DoubleQUotes in the Wild — twinned images that say more when juxtaposed than if presented singly — and argue that this form of pairing is something we do naturally as humans, somethin that can and perhaps should be sharpened into a tool, so that we are more aware of it, more alert to the possibilities of dicovering patterns, impliucations, inverences and questions than we might otherwise be.

It’s my contention, far from original I believe, that human faculties of this kind, when exercised and developed deliberately as tools, have much to teach us, and that the tool of juxtaposition, working as it does with our analogical sense, may offer us a key to the nonlinear, “horizontal” capabilities of the brain to match the highly developed tools of logic and “vertical” linear thinking.

I’m not sure that the juxtaposition the US Department of State makes in this tweet will be very convincing to diehard jihadists, but if it catches just one or two wannabes off-guard at a point where their dislike of Israel has not blossomed into a capacity to approve Hitler, it will have serve its intended purpose —

— albeit by demonstrating that even the State Department, in conversation with the proponents of the IS “caliphate”, can serve as further evidence of Godwin‘s insight.

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Here’s another recent tweet from my feed, in which I’d argue the DoubleQuotes effect is implied rather than used:

This second tweet via Clint Watts / @selectedwisdom.

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