If Everything Can Be ‘Weaponized,’ What Should We Fear?

Overview

“Weaponization” works as a throwing up of the hands, and as a suggestion — or an admission, or a strategic claim — that the discourse has failed us. Or, more accurately, it suggests that the discourse has become something dangerous: no mere fight but a terminal conflict without decorum or limits. (Excerpt)

Why is this important?

Pretty good piece in The New York Times Magazine 19 March 2017 about, essentially, “the weaponization of everything.” (And I would say that even if they didn’t specifically call out our Weaponized Narrative Initiative, which they do.) Unfortunately, it comes down on a note of throw-up-your-hands what-can-you-do – of the author feeling overwhelmed. (Which of course is exactly the intent of a weaponized narrative attack.) Yet it is a useful tour of the horizon. – Joel Garreau