This is a word I invented to describe the process of–shall I use Academese?–“narrative interaction” which is characterized by the substitution of labeling for understanding.
Example: Statement one: “I value private property ownership.”
Statement two: “you are obviously a right wing conservative, so I can’t talk with you.”
What true dialogue looks like is a lot of question asking and answering, confirmation of understanding, and presentation of competing or complementary narratives such that even when world views are not reconciled, the outline of each world view in some detail is clear to both or all parties. What does it mean to say property is theft? If someone says that, the job of one who seeks understanding and not coercion is to find out what THAT person means.
The word itself is the past tense of the word “think”, if we use abuse the English language. It connotes that if any thinking took place, it was in the past, and probably sloppy.
It is also an interesting sound: “thunk”. Say it aloud. What I wanted was something that evoked the sound of a rock being thrown into water, and rapidly disappearing. This is actually how the word came to me, trying to express that feeling. When a rock hits water with speed, it passes through it without interaction, correct? It gets wet, but neither the essence of the rock or the water is affected. All the information that might have been found in that water–in authentic and open give and take–is missed completely.
Will Smith never got “jiggy” to work, and frankly I’ll probably forget this word myself before long, but nonetheless I have always found neologisms both fun and useful. Useful because some thoughts need new words, since the old ones don’t quite get what you are aiming at, as they are often so loaded with the prejudices of the reader’s past that you fail to communicate and likewise fail to realize it.
When I say “puppy”, can I predict what sort of image of a puppy you come up with? If I assume it’s a German Shepherd puppy, and act on that assumption, I’m already mistaken for most people.
I will add that the entire Communist notion of collective guilt relies on thunking. You kill people because they fit some label, without any concern whatever for their individual cases, or whether the label even matches them in the slightest at all.