Manichaeism
A binary worldview in which the world is divided into absolute good and absolute evil, with no middle ground, no ambiguity, and no shades of gray. The term originates in a third-century religious movement founded by the Persian prophet Mani, but Spitale uses it in its political-rhetorical sense: the rhetorical move by which propagandists collapse complex realities into cosmic struggles between virtuous in-groups and existentially threatening out-groups. Manichaeism is the discursive infrastructure of authoritarianism — once a population accepts a Manichaean frame, compromise itself becomes a form of betrayal.