Controversy

A controversy is a contentious dispute, a disagreement in opinions over which parties are actively arguing. Controversies can range from private disputes between two individuals to large-scale social upheavals. Controversies in mathematics and the sciences are generally eventually solved. It is the nature of controversies in the humanities that they cannot generally be conclusively settled and may be accompanied by the disruption of peace and even quarreling. In some cases, this may be because the two sides to a dispute differ so much in their "givens" that in effect they are not having the same argument. In other cases, culture moves on, and the subject of the controversy becomes quaint in retrospect and increasingly irrelevant.

In propaganda

The term is not always used in a purely descriptive way. The use of the word tends itself to create controversy where none may have authentically existed, acting as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Propagandists, therefore, may employ it as a "tar-brush," pejoratively, and thus create a perceived atmosphere of controversy, discrediting the subject:

Related Topics:
Self-fulfilling prophecy - Propagandists - Pejorative

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::"Beatrix Potter's creation, Peter Rabbit..."

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::vs.

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::"Beatrix Potter's controversial creation, Peter Rabbit..."

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Thus controversy may itself be judged controversial.

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