An ideology is an army of convictions about how the world is and how it ought to be. As befitting a military force, ideologies are fueled by a sense of threat - kept at bay through a fortress-like structure called the ideological square. The ideological square comes in many flavors.
The Basic Us versus Them Square:
- Exaggerate our wonderfulness: our vision is good and true
- Exaggerate their awfulness: their vision is evil and false
- Downplay our bad side: our vision has no serious downside
- Downplay their good side: their vision has no merit
The Incompatible Visions of the Future Square:
- Exaggerate how good things will be if we prevail
- Exaggerate how bad things will be if they prevail
- Downplay the potential harm if we prevail
- Downplay the potential good if they prevail
And then we have the Ideological Half-Square:
- Exaggerate how awful things are now
- Downplay how good things are now
Reference:
Van Dijk, T. A. (1995). Discourse Semantics and Ideology. Discourse & Society, 6(2): 243-289.