The Objectifying Power of Labeling
Using a language of dehumanization
Weaponizing Words
Name-calling is a form of violence and control
Why do we need to dehumanize the “Other”?
Why can't we be human together?
Weaponizing Words
Name-calling is a form of violence and control
Why do we need to dehumanize the “Other”?
Once of my greatest pet peeves is be called a name, any name, outside my own name. No one likes it. Not only that but is breeds mistaken identity. There is no way that one word can sum up all that a person is all about. And yet we continue to be the know-it-all and show off our intelligence (lack of) by our deft use of words. Now that I know, I can show you that I know all about you and maybe even show the world how much I know. As kids when someone did that we taunted with, "Your intelligence is showing!" with the whole playground knowing what we really mean, "Your lack of intelligence is showing!" "Your ignorance is showing!" How often do we hear people from all walks of life all the way up to the highest position in the land labeling whole groups of people with words like:
Liberal, conservative, progressive, fundamentalist, evangelical, Christian, Muslim, atheist, agnostic, right wing, left wing, Democrat, Republican, disabled, able bodied, heterosexual, LGTBQIA, black, white, brown, middle class, rich, poor, beautiful, ugly ... And yet, are we not all human? And yet we stubbornly use names and labels thinking we know, but showing we know nothing.
Besides the destructiveness and violence of name-calling and insulting, this practice is a great absurdity in so many ways showing great human ignorance:
- The nature of words and language show us that labeling and name-calling can never be true. Language is made up of words. And words cannot be the reality. They are only signs and symbols that point to the reality.
- Using the person’s given name does no good for categorizing them because your name is not a descriptor. It is only a distinguisher. That’s it. But for me anyway, that’s the only way that is acceptable simply so we can distinguish the person we wish to talk to. In other words, never call me anything outside of my name.
- The words we use do not demonstrate our competence or power. Like a bully, they are simply a reflection of our shallow paucity of character.
- Given that it is impossible to label a person’s character, qualities, values, and beliefs by using one word, how much more absurd is it to use a whole group of people by using one word. Individuals are much too complex for this to work and thus a group is infinitesimally more complex and impossible.
- Beyond the complexity of each and every individual, there is the complexity of all of these political and religious ideologies and categories that we think we “know” when we use blanket name-calling.
- So my initial conclusion to this absurdity is that name-calling can never be meaningful, accurate, or useful, so it ends up being a weaponization of words to use against a person or a group in order to violate the identity or integrity of that person or group; demeaning and destroying those people in one’s mind and in the minds of others.
- The definition I use for violence happens to be one from Parker Palmer, “Violence is when we violate the identity and integrity of another.” Sound familiar?
- My conclusion regarding this ridiculous practice is that it is the lazy man’s way of spouting off what he doesn’t know and has no ability or desire to learn. And with the extreme derogatory effects it has can quickly become an act of violence and hence war; either individually or collectively.
We are so quick to label people often resulting in false stereotypes, prejudice, and racism. We label so we can separate something out from the whole and understand it better; knowing more precisely what we are getting. Labeling works great in a grocery store. We can see what it is we are buying and even find out all of the ingredients contained in it . . . by the label assigned to the product.
Labeling is also necessary in the medical field and the mental health field. Labels are used in diagnoses which help doctors to prescribe medication and hospitals to provide treatment. These labels also can be tied to funding sources that would not have been available without the label.
And to bring in another perspective, it is impossible to live in this world without using labels. After all, words themselves are signs and symbols that point to reality. In other words, even words are a form of labeling. But that’s precisely why we are so quickly hoodwinked and hijacked; deceived by labels. Life is full of them and they are familiar. And when something is familiar, we tend to take it for granted and allow it to go on autopilot; disengaging our minds. When that happens then it is very easy to mindlessly succumb and become numb to name calling and other labels out of laziness, the lack of effort to communicate mindfully and meaningfully.
All communication must be intentional. We must know what it is that we want to say, how we want to say it, and make sure that what we say brings the result that we are looking for. So often, the process gets hijacked and we end up with a train wreck because we were not intentional about what we need to say, why we need to say it, how we need to say it, and how we need it to come out. We are responsible for each and every word we say and we know that, as the Bible says, a word can be a spark that starts a fire that burns down a forest; everything we value.
We can use words
accurately to reflect reality or
manipulatively to get what we want (votes) or
destructively by categorizing and eliminating certain types of individuals and groups of people or
magically by using words to create your own alternative reality (a mental health issue).
We choose each word and how we use it. We also choose how we listen to words and whether we take them seriously or become numb from the bombardment of constant repetition.
In such a complex world, our minds compensate by “making sense” of things, defining and categorizing things. Our minds are driven by logic and do not like mystery. So when we don’t understand something, it is a real problem for our minds. Thought’s job is to fix things, to solve problems. Have you ever noticed in the middle of the night when your thoughts are going off the rails that it is trying to solve problems that can’t be solved at that time OR when there are no real problems to solve, thought invents problems so that it can have something to work; keeping you awake.
David Bohm, a scientist that has studied thought extensively and deeply says, “Thought creates the world and then says, I didn’t do it!”
Well, solving the mystery of a person that we do not understand is nothing more than thought creating a story in our head. Even though we want to make it work, it doesn’t work that way. People are not meant to be defined or categorized. People are meant to be free to be who they are and understood without being labeled. People are quite a mystery. Yet, if we are not painfully conscious of what our minds are doing, if we are not really paying attention to our thinking, our minds begin to define and categorize people so we can better “make sense” of them; stories in our heads. Our thinking often hijacks us by insisting on solving the problem of not understanding someone that is different.
BUT there are no labels that fit individuals or groups and we can never break a person down to their basic ingredients and understand them thoroughly. We never fully know what we are getting when it comes to people. WHY? Because we are meant to love each other by listening and accepting others just as they are. Without judgment. Unconditionally. Period.
With people, we must open our minds, our hearts, our hands, and our arms . . . embracing them and the mystery that we cannot wrap our minds around. But instead, we choose fear because we fear that which we do not understand, that which we cannot explain, that which we cannot put in a box. So we must label the “other” in order to dominate. Name calling, categorizing, stigmatizing, objectifying them into oblivion because it is all about me. Because I am too lazy, too weak, to face the “other”. When we face our fears, we begin to see that there is nothing to fear. Because the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. And hopefully we may even begin to understand those that are so different. There is no need to fear difference. Diversity enhances, deepens, expands our understanding and our compassion.
Sadly, so often domination is used for political or religious means. I’m right and therefore you must be wrong is quite logical to a narcissistic person or a bully, those that can’t see past the end of their noses. As long as I can put you down, then that makes me bigger, badder, and more powerful, at least that’s the story I tell myself in my mind. I don’t believe it because it is true or false. I believe because I want to believe it, just like any belief. And if I can believe it strongly enough with lots of faith, then maybe it’ll become true; it'll become my reality. After all, as Wayne Dyer says, “Loving people live in a loving world. Hostile people live in a hostile world. Same world!” A common strategy is to begin with labels and name calling in order to begin to create the world that I want to live in and dominate. Too often these bullies have no self esteem and are weak. They have to build themselves up somehow, whether it is true or not; a classic example of the straw man or hollow man with a head bursting with stories about their greatness.
"When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is
violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind."
(Jiddu Krishnamurti)
He wants a divided country, so he repeats it over and over.
... and the followers follow.
He wants to be great, so he repeats it over and over.
... and the followers follow.
He wants to be right, so he repeats it over and over.
... and the followers follow.
He wants many followers, so he repeats the things that they are dying to hear, the things they are fearful of, the things they hate.
... and the followers follow.
He wants the votes of Evangelical Christians, so he repeats exactly what they want to hear.
… and the followers follow.
The bully in the oval office begins by calling elected officials derogatory names and his supporters see it as harmless nicknames. But this is the beginning of creating a culture of fear and of power and oppression. This is the perfect scenario for a bully. If those that are dissenters or different or disagree speak out, then they are dubbed with a “nickname” of the bully’s own making, being the creator of all name-calling. The bully thinks he is cute. The crowd reacts with cheers and laughter. The bully thinks he is all that and tries it again because he is building a following that is loyal and devoted and that literally worships him and his words. Perfect! They will follow me anywhere, even into the street while I shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue.
At the same time, he targets groups of people that he despises, since bullies are fueled primarily by hurt, hate, and fear. He finds names that he uses to insult and put down people that are poor and live in certain cities, thereby declaring war on the poor. And his followers follow. The bully hates those people from other countries that are victims of crime and war, either because they are poor or dark skinned, or both. So he invents names for them and calls it infestation, and the followers follow.
“These aren’t people, these are animals.” “You wouldn't believe how bad these people are," Trump said. “Vicious and violent offenders.” “Sadistic criminals.” “You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are.”
"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best," he said then. "They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people." Has he met even one of them? NO! He is creating a reality that he wants to believe and that he thinks he can pull his followers into. This is the bully's way of manipulating and controlling, dominating and oppressing, robbing people of their own thoughts and values and superimposing his own. This is classic cult leadership and blind following.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/05/16/trump-immigrants-animals-mexico-democrats-sanctuary-cities/617252002/
Here is more classic bully Trump. In the following, he not only dehumanizes immigrants and refugees but also shows how he is using the label “democrats” to redefine them to be what he wants them to be and to convince his followers that they are something completely different than reality. Because reality is simply what the bully says it is.
Twitter users reacted strongly to President Donald Trump’s use of the word “infest” to describe illegal immigration.
Responding to criticism of a policy that has led to more than 2,000 children being separated from their parents at the border, Trump tweeted that Democrats were to blame.
“Democrats are the problem. They don’t care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our country, like MS-13,” he wrote, referencing a violent criminal gang based in Central America.
Critics of Trump’s language argued that it was dehumanizing to use a term traditionally used for pests.
“This word ‘infestation’ was often used in Rwanda during genocide, comparing Tutsis to roaches.” "’Infest’ is language used in Nazi propaganda to describe the "infestation" of Jews in Germany, who were compared to rats.”
https://time.com/5316087/donald-trump-immigration-infest/
“It is remarkable, in retrospect, how many and varied were the dictatorships of the past century. Murderous regimes — states that killed large numbers of their own citizens for political reasons — arose in every possible type of society. Communist, fascist and tribal ideologies evolved in places whose cultural histories, economic status and religious traditions had nothing in common. Wealthy Germany and impoverished Rwanda. Buddhist Cambodia and Orthodox Russia.
“Yet these different regimes did all have one thing in common. It was the obsession that one French scholar, writing of Cambodia, called the “mania for classification and elimination of different elements of society.” In each one of them, the groundwork for violence against a specific group — whether an ethnicity, an economic class or a political faction — was originally laid by a very particular way of using language.
“In the first instance, inflammatory language was used to define an ethnic minority and to give it fictional characteristics and properties. In some cases, the targeted “tribe” was entirely fictional, created by rhetoric alone. In China, the regime sought to identify the enemy as “Blacks,” as opposed to the friendly “Reds.” The Russian Bolsheviks defined and blamed the “Enemies of the People.” The Khmer Rouge in Cambodia sought to eliminate the “75ers,” the people who had been expelled from cities in 1975.
A running list of Trump’s demeaning comments on women since he ran for president. https://youtu.be/-55hPvP nTOU
'Sleepy' and 'crazy': How Trump attacks his 2020 competition. https://youtu.be/vWr6wULYhHw
Dicky Durbin' Joins Long List Of President Donald Trump Nicknames. https://youtu.be/L04agCSOmyc
Donald Trump's incendiary rhetoric history. https://youtu.be/Hd6eRRjthxY
Donald Trump’s message is violent to its core. https://youtu.be/0ZKDmYfhMhQ
Trump's words an 'incitement to violence'. https://youtu.be/8YN0tvtmwiw
Labeling is also necessary in the medical field and the mental health field. Labels are used in diagnoses which help doctors to prescribe medication and hospitals to provide treatment. These labels also can be tied to funding sources that would not have been available without the label.
And to bring in another perspective, it is impossible to live in this world without using labels. After all, words themselves are signs and symbols that point to reality. In other words, even words are a form of labeling. But that’s precisely why we are so quickly hoodwinked and hijacked; deceived by labels. Life is full of them and they are familiar. And when something is familiar, we tend to take it for granted and allow it to go on autopilot; disengaging our minds. When that happens then it is very easy to mindlessly succumb and become numb to name calling and other labels out of laziness, the lack of effort to communicate mindfully and meaningfully.
All communication must be intentional. We must know what it is that we want to say, how we want to say it, and make sure that what we say brings the result that we are looking for. So often, the process gets hijacked and we end up with a train wreck because we were not intentional about what we need to say, why we need to say it, how we need to say it, and how we need it to come out. We are responsible for each and every word we say and we know that, as the Bible says, a word can be a spark that starts a fire that burns down a forest; everything we value.
We can use words
accurately to reflect reality or
manipulatively to get what we want (votes) or
destructively by categorizing and eliminating certain types of individuals and groups of people or
magically by using words to create your own alternative reality (a mental health issue).
We choose each word and how we use it. We also choose how we listen to words and whether we take them seriously or become numb from the bombardment of constant repetition.
In such a complex world, our minds compensate by “making sense” of things, defining and categorizing things. Our minds are driven by logic and do not like mystery. So when we don’t understand something, it is a real problem for our minds. Thought’s job is to fix things, to solve problems. Have you ever noticed in the middle of the night when your thoughts are going off the rails that it is trying to solve problems that can’t be solved at that time OR when there are no real problems to solve, thought invents problems so that it can have something to work; keeping you awake.
David Bohm, a scientist that has studied thought extensively and deeply says, “Thought creates the world and then says, I didn’t do it!”
Well, solving the mystery of a person that we do not understand is nothing more than thought creating a story in our head. Even though we want to make it work, it doesn’t work that way. People are not meant to be defined or categorized. People are meant to be free to be who they are and understood without being labeled. People are quite a mystery. Yet, if we are not painfully conscious of what our minds are doing, if we are not really paying attention to our thinking, our minds begin to define and categorize people so we can better “make sense” of them; stories in our heads. Our thinking often hijacks us by insisting on solving the problem of not understanding someone that is different.
BUT there are no labels that fit individuals or groups and we can never break a person down to their basic ingredients and understand them thoroughly. We never fully know what we are getting when it comes to people. WHY? Because we are meant to love each other by listening and accepting others just as they are. Without judgment. Unconditionally. Period.
With people, we must open our minds, our hearts, our hands, and our arms . . . embracing them and the mystery that we cannot wrap our minds around. But instead, we choose fear because we fear that which we do not understand, that which we cannot explain, that which we cannot put in a box. So we must label the “other” in order to dominate. Name calling, categorizing, stigmatizing, objectifying them into oblivion because it is all about me. Because I am too lazy, too weak, to face the “other”. When we face our fears, we begin to see that there is nothing to fear. Because the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. And hopefully we may even begin to understand those that are so different. There is no need to fear difference. Diversity enhances, deepens, expands our understanding and our compassion.
Sadly, so often domination is used for political or religious means. I’m right and therefore you must be wrong is quite logical to a narcissistic person or a bully, those that can’t see past the end of their noses. As long as I can put you down, then that makes me bigger, badder, and more powerful, at least that’s the story I tell myself in my mind. I don’t believe it because it is true or false. I believe because I want to believe it, just like any belief. And if I can believe it strongly enough with lots of faith, then maybe it’ll become true; it'll become my reality. After all, as Wayne Dyer says, “Loving people live in a loving world. Hostile people live in a hostile world. Same world!” A common strategy is to begin with labels and name calling in order to begin to create the world that I want to live in and dominate. Too often these bullies have no self esteem and are weak. They have to build themselves up somehow, whether it is true or not; a classic example of the straw man or hollow man with a head bursting with stories about their greatness.
"When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is
(Jiddu Krishnamurti)
The Bully’s Name Calling Has Two Purposes
- To dominate, oppress, and eliminate the undesirables (the bullied), defined by the bully.
- To create an alternative reality. The bully's words are statements of what he wants to be true. And he describes this alternative reality that he is manipulating his followers to follow.
Self Fulfilling Prophecy
Research has shown that when someone is called a derogatory name or labeled (like loser, retard, ugly, stupid, and on and on) then there is a strong tendency for that label to come true in a person’s life. We develop our view of ourselves by what others think and say about us. My theory is that this is what Trump has learned as a child. That if he speaks what he wants to be true, eventually it’ll become true, in his own mind. And if he keeps on repeating it, eventually his alternative truth spreads like any meme, virus of the mind. And now, he has created a mental health pandemic, as the followers follow.He wants a divided country, so he repeats it over and over.
... and the followers follow.
He wants to be great, so he repeats it over and over.
... and the followers follow.
He wants to be right, so he repeats it over and over.
... and the followers follow.
He wants many followers, so he repeats the things that they are dying to hear, the things they are fearful of, the things they hate.
... and the followers follow.
He wants the votes of Evangelical Christians, so he repeats exactly what they want to hear.
… and the followers follow.
The bully in the oval office begins by calling elected officials derogatory names and his supporters see it as harmless nicknames. But this is the beginning of creating a culture of fear and of power and oppression. This is the perfect scenario for a bully. If those that are dissenters or different or disagree speak out, then they are dubbed with a “nickname” of the bully’s own making, being the creator of all name-calling. The bully thinks he is cute. The crowd reacts with cheers and laughter. The bully thinks he is all that and tries it again because he is building a following that is loyal and devoted and that literally worships him and his words. Perfect! They will follow me anywhere, even into the street while I shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue.
At the same time, he targets groups of people that he despises, since bullies are fueled primarily by hurt, hate, and fear. He finds names that he uses to insult and put down people that are poor and live in certain cities, thereby declaring war on the poor. And his followers follow. The bully hates those people from other countries that are victims of crime and war, either because they are poor or dark skinned, or both. So he invents names for them and calls it infestation, and the followers follow.
“These aren’t people, these are animals.” “You wouldn't believe how bad these people are," Trump said. “Vicious and violent offenders.” “Sadistic criminals.” “You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are.”
"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best," he said then. "They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people." Has he met even one of them? NO! He is creating a reality that he wants to believe and that he thinks he can pull his followers into. This is the bully's way of manipulating and controlling, dominating and oppressing, robbing people of their own thoughts and values and superimposing his own. This is classic cult leadership and blind following.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/05/16/trump-immigrants-animals-mexico-democrats-sanctuary-cities/617252002/
Here is more classic bully Trump. In the following, he not only dehumanizes immigrants and refugees but also shows how he is using the label “democrats” to redefine them to be what he wants them to be and to convince his followers that they are something completely different than reality. Because reality is simply what the bully says it is.
Twitter users reacted strongly to President Donald Trump’s use of the word “infest” to describe illegal immigration.
Responding to criticism of a policy that has led to more than 2,000 children being separated from their parents at the border, Trump tweeted that Democrats were to blame.
“Democrats are the problem. They don’t care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our country, like MS-13,” he wrote, referencing a violent criminal gang based in Central America.
Critics of Trump’s language argued that it was dehumanizing to use a term traditionally used for pests.
“This word ‘infestation’ was often used in Rwanda during genocide, comparing Tutsis to roaches.” "’Infest’ is language used in Nazi propaganda to describe the "infestation" of Jews in Germany, who were compared to rats.”
https://time.com/5316087/donald-trump-immigration-infest/
Trump won't stop his racially charged rhetoric. The repetition is what makes it work.
“My research shows anti-immigrant politicians need to constantly repeat their messages to keep their base agitated. Trump figured this out long ago.”The history of the “mania for categorization and elimination”
DONALD TRUMP’S CHILLING LANGUAGE, AND THE FEARSOME POWER OF WORDS
The new president’s divisive Inaugural Address profoundly underscores the importance of language in our society.
The dark history behind Trump’s inflammatory language
“It is remarkable, in retrospect, how many and varied were the dictatorships of the past century. Murderous regimes — states that killed large numbers of their own citizens for political reasons — arose in every possible type of society. Communist, fascist and tribal ideologies evolved in places whose cultural histories, economic status and religious traditions had nothing in common. Wealthy Germany and impoverished Rwanda. Buddhist Cambodia and Orthodox Russia.
“Yet these different regimes did all have one thing in common. It was the obsession that one French scholar, writing of Cambodia, called the “mania for classification and elimination of different elements of society.” In each one of them, the groundwork for violence against a specific group — whether an ethnicity, an economic class or a political faction — was originally laid by a very particular way of using language.
“In the first instance, inflammatory language was used to define an ethnic minority and to give it fictional characteristics and properties. In some cases, the targeted “tribe” was entirely fictional, created by rhetoric alone. In China, the regime sought to identify the enemy as “Blacks,” as opposed to the friendly “Reds.” The Russian Bolsheviks defined and blamed the “Enemies of the People.” The Khmer Rouge in Cambodia sought to eliminate the “75ers,” the people who had been expelled from cities in 1975.
After the unwanted group had been defined, propaganda was used to demonize and dehumanize it.
For the past half-century, memory of where it once led has made this kind of language taboo in Western democracies. Now it is undeniably back.
They have brought back the “mania for classification and elimination of different elements of society,” and this will have real consequences.
“I don’t believe any of these leaders are, at the moment, planning mass murder. The purpose this time is different: to define and classify a group whose existence can be used to create fear. Social media can be used to give these enemies greater numbers than they have in reality; even when they don’t exist, talk of “no-go zones” and “crime waves” can be used to win votes.
“These tactics will produce casualties. The border police who took children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border were mentally prepared to do so thanks to the language of dehumanization. About a third of Americans — most of whom would intervene if they saw a toddler being ripped away from her mother at the house next door — were prepared to accept it as well.
“In the longer term, there will be another kind of price to pay: Eventually it will be impossible to discuss real immigration issues, or to talk about real immigrants, if a large part of the public has come to believe in quasi-authoritarian fictions.
“Veil reality in myth , and it becomes easier to manipulate — but impossible to understand or address.”
Note: “Veil reality in myth” is currently what is happening with the use of terms like, “fake news,” “the corrupt news” and reporters as the “enemy of the people.” This completely obscures the truth, leaving the public confused, which creates a dependency on the leader to spoon feed them the truth. His constant repetition of rhetoric is an attempt to convince his followers that reality is what he says it is. It is very cult-like. Democracy has no credibility without a common understanding and reality that can be referenced. This language is the destruction of society.
Demoralization, dehumanization, demonization are all how the public is manipulated to be followers and to cease all critical thinking or questioning. When president Trump calls something that he doesn’t like “fake news” then he is undermining that which he does not like and demeaning its credibility so that he can create the reality that he wants by his repetition of words and phrases to manipulate. This is an old strategy for destruction of societies and building authoritarian regimes.
The outcomes that the public is being manipulated into is reflective of the “mania for classification and elimination of different elements of society.” Those that are not for me are against me. We the People are now the enemy of the people. And the State is run by the authoritarian leader rather than government of the people, for the people, by the people.
An integral part of any democracy is the free press that have the freedom to speak the truth as they see it. A free press that earnestly researches the truth and reports what it sees to the best of their ability. Of course, everyone is biased and sees the world through their own unique perspective. But the honest free press is doing their best to speak the truth to power. This is part of the checks and balances of We The People versus the people in power.
How Trump's 'fake news' rhetoric has gotten out of control
“These tactics will produce casualties. The border police who took children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border were mentally prepared to do so thanks to the language of dehumanization. About a third of Americans — most of whom would intervene if they saw a toddler being ripped away from her mother at the house next door — were prepared to accept it as well.
“In the longer term, there will be another kind of price to pay: Eventually it will be impossible to discuss real immigration issues, or to talk about real immigrants, if a large part of the public has come to believe in quasi-authoritarian fictions.
“Veil reality in myth , and it becomes easier to manipulate — but impossible to understand or address.”
Note: “Veil reality in myth” is currently what is happening with the use of terms like, “fake news,” “the corrupt news” and reporters as the “enemy of the people.” This completely obscures the truth, leaving the public confused, which creates a dependency on the leader to spoon feed them the truth. His constant repetition of rhetoric is an attempt to convince his followers that reality is what he says it is. It is very cult-like. Democracy has no credibility without a common understanding and reality that can be referenced. This language is the destruction of society.
Demoralization, dehumanization, demonization are all how the public is manipulated to be followers and to cease all critical thinking or questioning. When president Trump calls something that he doesn’t like “fake news” then he is undermining that which he does not like and demeaning its credibility so that he can create the reality that he wants by his repetition of words and phrases to manipulate. This is an old strategy for destruction of societies and building authoritarian regimes.
The outcomes that the public is being manipulated into is reflective of the “mania for classification and elimination of different elements of society.” Those that are not for me are against me. We the People are now the enemy of the people. And the State is run by the authoritarian leader rather than government of the people, for the people, by the people.
An integral part of any democracy is the free press that have the freedom to speak the truth as they see it. A free press that earnestly researches the truth and reports what it sees to the best of their ability. Of course, everyone is biased and sees the world through their own unique perspective. But the honest free press is doing their best to speak the truth to power. This is part of the checks and balances of We The People versus the people in power.
How Trump's 'fake news' rhetoric has gotten out of control
A running list of Trump’s demeaning comments on women since he ran for president. https://youtu.be/-55hPvP nTOU
'Sleepy' and 'crazy': How Trump attacks his 2020 competition. https://youtu.be/vWr6wULYhHw
Dicky Durbin' Joins Long List Of President Donald Trump Nicknames. https://youtu.be/L04agCSOmyc
Donald Trump's incendiary rhetoric history. https://youtu.be/Hd6eRRjthxY
Donald Trump’s message is violent to its core. https://youtu.be/0ZKDmYfhMhQ
Trump's words an 'incitement to violence'. https://youtu.be/8YN0tvtmwiw
The “N” word, the “R” word are ways of putting others down, demeaning and stigmatizing them so we can be better than “them”. The “R” word is always meant to mean less than, to belittle.
https://youtu.be/PE_5_BbZlbI
https://youtu.be/PE_5_BbZlbI
Please see WordPress for the most updated version of this post: https://ronirvine.wordpress.com/2020/06/26/labeling-categorizing-and-eliminating/
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