While today such blatantly racist arguments as Cromer’s are advanced only by those on the far right, it isn’t hard to see how the overall logic of irrationality pervades many discussions. Often, those who are seen as “terrorists” are presented as crazed, irrational, and fanatical: as individuals who commit untold horrors with no clear reason or motivation. Palestinian suicide bombers, for instance, are presented as rabid lunatics rather than as people driven to extreme measures under conditions of occupation. Terrorists cannot be reasoned with; rather, we are told, they are driven by irrational motivations and must therefore be put on “kill lists.”

XREF: Connects to broader literature on dehumanization and how framing adversaries as irrational licenses violence, echoing works on propaganda and the political uses of the irrationality trope. SEED: Potential essay: how labeling opponents 'irrational' preempts negotiation and legitimizes extrajudicial violence across conflicts, from terror to asylum policy.

Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politi…, loc. 183