unpersoning
Erasing someone's existence
Unpersoning is the act of erasing someone from public recognition or official existence—removing their name from records, deleting their image from photographs, treating them as if they never existed.
The term derives from George Orwell's *1984*, where the totalitarian state made political enemies into "unpersons." Modern usage extends to social ostracism: After the scandal, the company began systematically unpersoning their former CEO from marketing materials.
Eliminate unwanted elements
- disappearanceAct of going missing
- damnatio memoriaePosthumous erasure from records
- airbrushingSprayed-paint smoothing technique
- StalinSoviet autocrat, mid-century
show trial · defection · exile · gulag · rehabilitation · denunciation · liquidation · nonexistence
Removing from online platforms
- social media banProhibition from online networks
- cancelingRevoking a prior arrangement
- ostracismBanishment from a group
- public shamingCommunal reputational punishment
doxing · blacklisting · silencing · mob justice · boycott · exile · unfollowing · blocking
Holding contradictory beliefs simultaneously
- thoughtcrimeProhibited beliefs under authoritarianism
- Nineteen Eighty-FourDystopian totalitarianism novel
- Big BrotherTotalitarian surveillance authority
- memory holeDevice for erasing history
vaporization · totalitarianism · propaganda · surveillance · Ministry of Truth · erasure · revisionism · censorship
Reducing humans to things
- otheringViewing as fundamentally different
- degradationDecline in condition
- namelessnessLacking any designation
- numberedAssigned figures for order
facelessness · anonymization · reducing · commodification · voicelessness · marginalization · invisibility · social exclusion
purge
Eliminate unwanted elements
- disappearanceAct of going missing
- damnatio memoriaePosthumous erasure from records
- airbrushingSprayed-paint smoothing technique
Stalin · show trial · defection · exile · gulag · rehabilitation · denunciation · liquidation · nonexistence · official history
deplatforming
Removing from online platforms
- social media banProhibition from online networks
- cancelingRevoking a prior arrangement
- ostracismBanishment from a group
public shaming · doxing · blacklisting · silencing · mob justice · boycott · exile · unfollowing · blocking · shadowbanning
doublethink
Holding contradictory beliefs simultaneously
- thoughtcrimeProhibited beliefs under authoritarianism
- Nineteen Eighty-FourDystopian totalitarianism novel
- Big BrotherTotalitarian surveillance authority
memory hole · vaporization · totalitarianism · propaganda · surveillance · Ministry of Truth · erasure · revisionism · censorship · dystopia
objectification
Reducing humans to things
- otheringViewing as fundamentally different
- degradationDecline in condition
- namelessnessLacking any designation
numbered · facelessness · anonymization · reducing · commodification · voicelessness · marginalization · invisibility · social exclusion · deindividuation
unpersoninghonoring
Recognizing with respect
celebrating · commemorating · canonizing · glorifying · lionizing
unpersoningembracing
Holding warmly, willingly accepting
welcoming · inclusion · rehabilitation · reintegration · acceptance
unpersoningmemorialization
Preserving in lasting tribute
immortalization · enshrinement · preservation · remembrance · monumentalizing
person, personal, impersonal, personhood, nonperson, unperson, depersonalization, depersonalize, depersonalized