Accusation in a mirror (AiM) (also called mirror politics,[1] mirror propaganda, mirror image propaganda, or a mirror argument) is a technique often used in the context of hate speech incitement, where one falsely attributes one's own motives and/or intentions to one's adversaries.[2][3][4] It has been cited, along with dehumanization, as one of the indirect or cloaked forms of incitement to genocide, which has contributed to the commission of genocide, for example in the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, and the Armenian genocide. By invoking collective self-defense, accusation in a mirror is used to justify genocide, similar to self-defense as a defense for individual homicide.[4][5][6]
The Office of the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide (OSAPG) defines mirror politics as a "common strategy to create divisions by fabricating events whereby a person accuses others of what he or she does or wants to do", and includes it as a factor in their Analysis Framework on Genocide, when analyzing whether a given situation poses a risk of genocide.[7] Scholars such as Kenneth L. Marcus and Gregory S. Gordon have investigated ways in which accusation in a mirror has been used to incite hatred and how its impact can be mitigated.
- ^ ICTR 1998, p. 30-31.
- ^ Mucchielli 1970, p. 77-78.
- ^ Gordon 2017, p. 287.
- ^ a b Benesch 2008, p. 504.
- ^ Benesch 2008, p. 506.
- ^ Benesch 2014.
- ^ OSAPG, p. 2.