Thought-terminating cliché

A thought-terminating cliché (also known as a semantic stop-sign, a thought-stopper, bumper sticker logic, or cliché thinking) is a form of <a href="/facts/Loaded_language/CVEIEHFH">loaded language</a>, often passing as <a href="/facts/Folk_wisdom/hcBN8qcd">folk wisdom</a>, intended to end an argument and quell <a href="/facts/Cognitive_dissonance/j0xK7w6S">cognitive dissonance</a>. Its function is to stop an argument from proceeding further, ending the debate with a <a href="/facts/Clich%C3%A9/G1HJa9k1">cliché</a> rather than a point. Some such clichés are not inherently terminating. They only become so when used to intentionally dismiss dissent or justify <a href="/facts/Fallacy/IRVuLSef">fallacious logic</a>.
The term was popularized by <a href="/facts/Robert_Jay_Lifton/CpM8rjdY">Robert Jay Lifton</a> in his 1961 book <a href="/facts/Thought_Reform_and_the_Psychology_of_Totalism/3dTpCRSu">Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism</a>, who referred to the use of the cliché, along with "loading the language", as "the language of non-thought".

Thought-terminating cliché open-in-new

Thought-terminating cliché