The process of occidentalization of the world, a way of constructing imaginary narratives about otherness, has been said to constitute Modernity in terms of a totalitarian attempt to universalize a European logic. Through this perspective, subjectivities were produced in complicity with the Western 'colonial' project. Drawing on Foucault, Critical Discourse Analysis and Postcolonial theories, this paper focuses on current language practices in the media by investigating their role in creating and circulating discourses about identities and differences in the contemporary scenario after 9/11. On analyzing a specific communicative event in the printed Brazilian press, an opinion article which centers on the Iraqi War, the authors argue that, still in tune with an occidentalist perspective, identity and difference are approached through fundamentalist lenses - in a period in which post-colonialism has widely criticized Enlightenment ideals. It is shown how in this approach media discourse is used as a war weapon.
Identity; Occidentalism; Post-Colonialism; Media Discourse