The Dichotomy of “Accusation – Defense” in the Rhetoric of Metamodern Manipulation: A Socio-Philosophical Analysis

Abstract

The article explores the dichotomy of “accusation – defense” within the socio-philosophical discourse as one of the key technologies of manipulating legal consciousness and public opinion. It reveals the cognitive and hermeneutic structure of this opposition, which operates not only in judicial practice but also within political, moral, and cultural rhetoric.

In the contemporary informational space,where truth increasingly becomes an object of strategic play, the “accusation – defense” dichotomy acquires a new socio-philosophical dimension. Whereas in the ancient world this pair of categories (κατηγορία – ἀπολογία) functioned within the framework of forensic rhetoric, in the era of metamodernity it transforms into a technology for manipulating collective consciousness. Accusation and defense become not merely positions in discourse, but forms of truth production, instruments for creating the illusion of moral superiority. The authors argue that this dichotomy has an archetypal nature, reproducing the structure of dualistic thinking grounded in the need to legitimize power through the creation of polarities. The purpose of the study is to provide a socio-philosophical interpretation of the “accusation – defense” dichotomy as a rhetorical technology of manipulation in the communicative space of the metamodern era. The methodology combines philosophical-hermeneutic, rhetorical, socio-communicative, and phenomenological approaches. This interdisciplinary integration makes it possible not only to interpret manipulation as a social phenomenon, but also to uncover its deeper semantic structures within the realms of culture, law, and communication. Results and Conclusions. The “accusation – defense” dichotomy represents a fundamental structure of rhetorical and social thinking. In the modern social space, accusation and defense perform functions not only of forensic or rhetorical opposition but also of symbolic control over consciousness. They become two poles of rhetoric, where each communicative act simultaneously contains elements of critique and self-justification. The metamodern discourse opens the possibility for developing an aesthetics of mutual understanding, in which accusation and defense are transformed into forms of shared meaning-making. The study proposes a new hermeneutic and communicative model for interpreting manipulation in metamodern discourse, applicable to media, political, and legal communicative contexts.