Is there a specific word for "destruction of ideas"?

The act of wiping out an specific idea, culture, or belief.

I know it has the suffix -cide.

edited 20th Feb '15 6:31:56 PM by Worlder

You might want to also post this in the Quickie Questions thread.

Impossible

Going bye the usual "latin root" tradition, It's likely be Ideacide as idea is, itself, a latin word. But people always want these thing to sound special so I'm sure it's something else. Idicide, mayhaps?

What about "killing of a culture"?

That's popularly called "cultural genocide", though some term it "ethnocide". You're find articles about both on Wikipedia, which will also explain why Ethnocide is a terrible name for such a thing.

And here I thought such a heinous act would be more deserving of it's own -cide word.

I suppose cultural genocide would suffice for most usages.

Now I wonder, had Adolf Hitler had heard of memetics, would he have had said something about purging the world of "inferior memes"? The eradication of thoughts, ideas, and beliefs deemed inferior by Nazi standards.

Of course I know he actually did that shit, but he never mentioned "memes". Mainly because the word wasn't coined back in the 1920s. But if it was would he have said it?

edited 20th Feb '15 9:24:29 PM by Worlder

Hitler was extremely keen on the idea of controlling the world through cultural annihilation. The Nazis made deliberate efforts to kill intellectuals, destroy cultural possessions, and wipe out cultural distinctiveness. The aim was not only to kill as many Poles, Russians, and Jews as possible, but also to destroy the concepts of Poland, Russia, and Judaism - so even if any do survive, they can no longer conceptualize who they are or what their countries were.

There's a good documentary about Hitler's cultural views, "The Architecture of Doom" which explores the artistic side of the Third Reich.

I also posted this question on the "Quickie Questions" thread.

I learned of the term linguicide, but heard of this phenomenon prior to this word.

Memetocide. That's the term I'd use.

I searched Google to see if "eumemics" (eugenics but for memes) is a thing.

It kind of is, but not much.

edited 21st Feb '15 11:11:24 PM by Worlder

memocide

I joined just so I could answer your question. :)

This is how I found it: http://www.google.com/search?q=censorship+*cide&nfpr=1 (5th page of google results)

See: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/memocide
Also: http://www.google.com/search?q=memocide

edited 4th Mar '15 12:24:32 AM by DavidWurn

This reminds me of how newspeak in 1984 is supposed to effectively destroy some ideas by making them impossible to be expressed. I don't remember if Orwell coined a specific word for that, though.

There is.