Interesting anecdotal observation about thought police that should make you instantly suspicious: most strident thought police are white.
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How different do you think the thought police you're referring to (of the "PC" variety) are from Orwell's?
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Does it seem important that it is not backstopped by unilateral, real world violence?
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I think it is. Thought policing itself is a kind of violence. Unilateral nature comes from asymmetric ability to police.
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What differentiates thought policing from disagreement under asymmetric power dynamics (if anything)?
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Would this do as a definition, then? "culturally motivated attempt to regulate means of expression under asymmetric power?"
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misses subconscious/denied bad faith: goal is to preserve the asymmetry in unsolvable state by institutionalizing opposition.
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(Going to these pains because it seems important, as power has been ephemeralized over time, to preserve means of regulation, …
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… opposition, regulation, etc. & I worry about overbroad strokes delegitimizing attempts to do so, esp. when those strokes punch down.)

