Harmful Rhetoric or Free Speech?
Some people are claiming Free Speech is causing other people to want to kill Trump. To that I argue Speech doesn’t kill people, only people do. Sound familiar?
Lots of people dont like a lot of other people. Not all of them want to shoot people they don't like. There will always be some nut case who has a gun and does shoot someone they don't like (or plans to). As long as guns are widely available some nutter is going to shoot someone.
That said, there has been a lot of unpleasant rhetoric over the last 9 years from both sides, but nobody holds a candle to Trumps rhetoric. And despite that only 1 kid managed to get off any shots and the investigation is a cover up.
By way of comparison here is the List JD Vance Composed of Democrats rhetoric and released. His list not mine
1/
2/
He forgot this one
The Cognitive Dissonance it takes to complain over somebody claiming Trump is dangerous or a threat to Democracy is hilarious.
Trumps rhetoric is amplified by demagoguery, which may be defined as the process where skilled speakers seek to influence public opinion by employing the traditional tools of rhetoric with complete indifference to truth.
https://pt.icct.nl/sites/default/files/import/pdf/nacos-et-al.pdf
When influential persons, such as Trump engage in demagoguery that vilifies political opponents, ethnic, racial, and religious groups, journalists and whole news organizations, the consequences transcend by far the hate speech of the bully next door and on social media platforms.
Targets of hate speech, such as hardworking low income Haitian workers in Springfield are particularly vulnerable, when the aggressive rhetoricians are powerful individuals in the public sphere with many loyal followers.
The demagogue’s blemishes groups that do not belong to the ingroup. The goal is to reduce “an entire segment of the population into dastardly subhumans.”
This can be Jews and Communists like we saw 90 years ago, to Palestinians as we see in Israel, and today in America it is immigrants and liberals on one side, and MAGA followers on the other
Trump called unwelcomed immigrants repeatedly “animals”—not only when he singled out Latinos in the criminal MS-13 gang. Demanding tougher immigration laws President Trump said at one occasion, “We have people coming into the country or trying to come in, we’re stopping a lot of them... You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people. These are animals.”
He called “Never Trump” Republicans, Democrats, alleged members of “the deep state,” and journalists repeatedly “human scum” or “scum”.
He called Hillary Clinton a “total train wreck,” Nancy Pelosi “crazy” and “an inherently dumb person,” Dianne Feinstein “another beauty.”
On September 29, 2019,, President Donald Trump (@realDonaldTrump) retweeted a warning by the Evangelical Pastor Robert Jeffress,
“If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal.”
December 2019, the President tweeted, “The Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats have become the Party of Hate. They are so bad for our Country!”
At a rally in Louisiana in late 2019 Trump said, “Democrats are becoming increasingly totalitarian,” and are “trying to overthrow American democracy to impose their socialism agenda.” He accused Democrats of “trying to rip our nation apart.”
After Senator Kamala Harris was nominated as the Democratic Party’s vice-presidential candidate, Trump attacked her in tweets and public statements as “mean,” “horrible,” “disrespectful,” “awkward,” and “a monster” claiming that “she doesn’t meet the requirements [for vice president]” and “is going to be a big failure.”
At the end of May 2020 some 100,000 Americans had succumbed to the COVID-19 pandemic and cities across the country dealt with social unrest in the wake of a Black man’s murder by police in Minneapolis. In the midst of this dual crisis, President Trump took the leisure to retweet a repugnant video posted by Cowboys for Trump @RideWithC4T that ended with one Trump supporter’s exclamation, “The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat!
June 2020, he gave a televised speech in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that was labeled as the opening salvo of his reelection campaign.
You are warriors, thank you.
We had some very bad people outside; they were doing bad things. They got rid of a lot of bad people that were there for a long time [they were in fact peaceful “Black Lives Matter” protesters].
Sort of like me in Washington, draining the swamp. I never knew it was so deep. But it’s happening. It’s happening, I never knew it was so deep. It’s deep and thick and a lot of bad characters.
I stand before you today to declare the silent majority is stronger than ever before.
They want to demolish our heritage.
And when you see those lunatics all over the streets, it’s damn nice to have arms. Damn nice. ...The right to keep and bear arms, we’ll protect your second amendment. Above all, we will never stop fighting for the sacred values that bind us together as one America, we will support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.
Our incredible success in rebuilding America stands in stark contrast to the extremism and destruction and violence of the radical left.
Us vs them
In fall 2020, during a campaign stop in Minnesota, President Trump invoked the pseudo-scientific eugenics saga of white genetic superiority. “You have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes, isn’t it, don’t you believe? The racehorse theory. You think we’re so different? You have good genes in Minnesota,” he told his almost all- white audience.
He warned his supporters that in case of his rival Joe Biden’s election victory their state would become “a refugee camp” filled with “Islamic extremists”—an insult directed at Minnesota’s more than 50,000 Somalian immigrants.
Lets flash forward to this campaign
Trump has said on several occasions that immigrants in the United States illegally are "poisoning the blood of our country."
Trump pledged at a November 2023 rally in New Hampshire that he would "root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country."
At a March 2024 campaign event in North Carolina, Trump said Biden's immigration policies amounted to a "conspiracy to overthrow the United States" through lax security policies that had allowed millions of migrants to stream across the U.S. border with Mexico.
During a March appearance alongside a Republican Senate candidate in Ohio, Trump warned of a "bloodbath" if he fails to unseat Biden in November's election.
Trump has frequently referred to immigrants in the country illegally in subhuman terms, for example referring to them as animals who are prone to violence.
"In some cases they're not people, in my opinion," he said during his March appearance in Ohio. "But I'm not allowed to say that because the radical Left says that's a terrible thing to say. "These are animals, OK, and we have to stop it," he said.
Trump has also described at least two Black prosecutors - Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James - as "animals." He has repeatedly referred to James as "Peekaboo," which rhymes with a racial slur.
He referred to Biden as “Crooked Joe,” “feeble old guy,” “low IQ” and “stupid,” and Harris as “Laughin’ Kamala,” “crazy” and “nuts.”
He referred to Democrats as “enemies of the democracy” and bemoaned the “grossly incompetent people running our country.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna162846
On August 1st, for example, Trump posted on Truth Social that the persecution he’d experienced from the “Biden Crime Family” was “reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.”
https://time.com/6306945/donald-trump-democrats-fascists/
Trump’s strategy throughout the 2024 campaign revolves around stoking voters’ anger, fears and insecurities. By all accounts, the strategy works: voters are express strong emotional reactions to Trump’s potential re-election,
Trump’s refusal to pronounce the name Kamala correctly, and his statement that there are several pronunciations, suggest her name is somehow “un-American”. He has also questioned her racial identity, suggesting she only recently “became a Black person”.
In June, hours after pleading not guilty to federal charges of mishandling classified documents and conspiring to obstruct justice, he claimed that President Biden “together with a band of his closest thugs, misfits, and Marxists, tried to destroy American democracy.” He added, “If the communists get away with this, it won’t stop with me.”
Trump’s incendiary comments were part of a whole that includes him accusing the retired general Mark Milley of treason and suggesting that he should be executed; repeatedly referring to Special Counsel Jack Smith as “deranged” and a “thug”; and constantly lobbing charges of political bias at Judge Arthur F. Engoron, who is presiding over Trump’s New York civil trial, and Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is overseeing the January 6th case in Washington, D.C.
Here is some of Trumps rhetoric directed at Kamala
“She’s a Marxist, communist, fascist, socialist,” Trump said at an Arizona rally on Thursday.
“This is a radical-left, Marxist, communist, fascist,” Trump said while attacking Harris at a news conference on Friday.
This wasn’t new rhetoric. “We have a fascist person running who’s incompetent,” Trump told Virginia residents during a campaign stop in August; at an Arizona rally in August, Trump said the true divide in American politics is between patriots with traditional values and “these far-left fascists led by Harris and her group.”
And Trump has gone beyond saying that electing Harris would mean an end to American democracy. He has said this summer that electing Harris would mean “you’re not going to have a country anymore” and that “we’re not going to have a country left.”
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/09/17/politics/jd-vance-kamala-harris-fascist
Now lets look at some of his email
July 8 at 6:31 a.m.
The SICK Dreams of Democrats are happening right before our eyes. Just wait, in a few years, every CRIMINAL, INSANE PERSON, AND RAPIST the Third World has DUMPED at our border will make our country RECOGNIZABLE.
July 9 at 9:24 a.m.
Only someone who truly hates our country would allow an invasion like this to continue.
trump
July 11 at 12:26 p.m.
DEMOLISH the Deep State and rescue our country from these FILTHY LUNATICS!
trump
July 11 at 3:34 p.m.
Biden’s Border BLOODBATH is bringing crime. It’s bringing VIOLENCE.
July 12 at 3:26 p.m.
America has been DESTROYED. The DEEP STATE has attacked me. Patriots like you have been caught in the CROSSFIRE of Biden’s Rampage.
July 13 at 4:42 p.m.
ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE IN ONE HOUR! When I take the rally stage, I could be making a MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT that’s sure to strike FEAR into the hearts of our DEEP STATE ENEMIES.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/07/18/us/politics/trump-biden-campaign-rhetoric.html
And after all this
Trump on Monday
“Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out,”
Trump told Fox News Digital on Monday.
Poor baby
Then he goes on with more of the same rhetoric
Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse! Allowing millions of people, from places unknown, to INVADE and take over our Country, is an unpardonable sin.”
Democratic leaders, Trump said, “are people that want to destroy our country.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-blames-democrats_n_66e84bafe4b0b7fef8320434/amp
Personally, I don’t feel Trump by himself is a threat to Democracy. There are lots of evil people in the world. He is just one of them. Its the fact his tens of millions of supporters have succumbed to the banality of evil that is the threat. They can no longer recognize good from evil and will defend or excuse anything he does.
But why is this?. I know Trump supporters who are not Evil. For some its about self interest. Those with lots of taxable income want Trump. I get that.
For others, its unhappiness at the current situation. Lots to be unhappy about. So we look for somebody to blame. Who to blame?. China, Immigrants, those on the Dole, and Liberals who provide the Dole. Trumps against all that, or so he says. So I get that.
On the other side they see the problem as more related to the pandering of the Rich and Corporate Interests and Military Spending and Equality and Trumps not their man at all. Some of them have been brainwashed about Russia as well
Of course both parties are controlled by the BLOB and neither care about your desires. The BLOB wants Trump for the next phase of Americas destruction and we probably see it happen faster under Trump.
Anyways, enjoy the rest of the show. Fake Wrestling is a Great Sport and Trumps the Master of Kayfabe going back to his Casino days.
Good luck
I once suggested on Twitter that Russia
a$$assionate Nuland. It seemed a more direct approach than going through Ukraine's fighting men. Twitter blocked my account until I removed the tweet. :-) Apparently twitter deemed calling for violence unacceptable. Although I do note it is a little inconsistent.
Do I understand that you are using the "bloodbath" term as an equivalency of urged violence against Trump and "Trumpers?" That is completely out of context as pretty much everything is. Really - Black Lives Matters was "peaceful?"
Pete Lincoln, you need to LOOK. When Trump was shot - clipped by that assassin's bullet? What did supporters do? They went and donated to his campaign.
Who burned the cities? Who killed people?
Dan Bongino reminds people that while - I will say conservatives - think liberals are people with bad ideas, liberals believe conservatives are bad people.
You are so generous as to say that not all conservatives are bad people.
Conservatives have more fun. They have more love. They refrain from taking liberty and life away. Conservatives have a lot of work to do.
btw Milley is a problem as was Mattis. Mattis once fired, filed his FARA papers the very next morning and went to work as a Lobbyist on behalf of the CCP. Did you hear the things Milley said?
John Ratcliffe explained in late 2020 that the CCP General he hid who had "defected." from the IC, because the XXP has infiltrated all the agencies to the top. He did not realize that included the DOD. That "defector" was a plant, and he is right where the CCP planned for him to be.
You are aware that the CCP has bought up huge tracts of land near U.S. Airbases? CFIUS has been rubber stamping that and other activities all during the Obama admin and the present one. Those vast tracts of now CCP owned land have military grade runways and facilities on them. The CCP bought up most of the privatized military academies. Milly, Mattis and others all think the CCP is their friend and that they will live out the rest of their lives comfortably, and that their families will be untouched.
Do you know there are DOD personnel training ChiCom soldiers in Ecuador, and Columbia and other countries? That there are 10,000 PLA coming into the United States with papers that CPBP has to honor and let them in - something like diplomatic immunity? See, it is easy to be a liberal a lefty and spew the cheap and tired rhetoric you are doing in your substack, when there is a large industry to support your efforts. Congress allocates over $1 Billion (yes, with a capital B) a year to support the establishment narratives. All the MsM (Marxist state Media) takes it and oh yes, Fox and many "independent" journalists (and "journalists').
Neo-Maoist Marxist Chinese are not going to treat the Leftist ideologues who were stupid enough to go along with the Overthrow. The CCP HATES any ethnicity except Han. Marxists don't keep people around who took the bribes, who were "useful idiots," who expect favors, expect atta boys and girls, who have memories of who said/did what and when.
They will remove the Americans, and they will remove all the POCs after working some of them to death.
20% loss of buying power and real wages is on this administration.
I'm not seeing how a Trump admin is going to destroy America. Liberals and Left were operating (too) healthily during his admin. No one lost rights during that time.
Violence is encouraged, yea, more than encouraged under the liberals and Left.
But you make your wages writing lies that the evidence doesn't hold up. Trump and conservatives have to "tone it down" because why - they bring the violence on themselves?
Look at the real crime stats, look at the "Summer of Love" where minorities' businesses were burned out, they were killed, beat up, run out by the willing Left and financed by the Blob. The Blob does not want We the People, does not want a Republic to have a chance no matter the cost.
You can do the research, you probably know how much trouble America is in, but what you do is easy. You are willing to write fairly shallow negative skimmed off Left stuff because it pays, it's easy and wow, Hail the Dystopia?
You can do so, only because there is still some of America right now.
Do you have any skin in this?