A relative would often say, "The less said, the better."
My response to that is yes and no--it depends upon the context.
Too often, as Martin Luther King, Jr., demonstrates in his words, silence leads to greater problems. When we don't speak up about problems that matter, we set the stage for greater struggle, injustice, greed, hate, and loss. It is our responsibility to speak up to halt the problems that exist.
Yet, the way we use words matters too. If we talk too much and use too many words, people stop listening. If we are alarmists for every situation, we may be seen as untrustworthy or over-reactive. And when we speak too fast, people may be overwhelmed. Using words well is an advantageous art and skill--when we use words well with right frequency and apt word choice, our words can truly empower, transform, and support people and ideas. We must always be responsible, however, with the words we use and the power those words have.
We also have to be aware of our audience when using words--sometimes, we may misjudge an audience, and use words with too much candor or formality. Matching the tone and style of our words means understanding who our audiences are, their readiness or interest in what we have to say, and the hoped for consequences of our speak.
Recent events have brought this discussion to light. Relationships during a pandemic have been challenging. With many limitations and the threat of spreading a deadly virus, we've had to renegotiate many of our relationships with regard to how we meet, where we meet, what we do, and how we handle this challenge. The pandemic has prompted us to communicate more online, and to spend greater lengths of time in intimate gatherings versus larger, more populous events. The way we use language has been a factor in sustaining our relationships during this time.
In front of the White House, at the Elipse, the President of the United States used his powerful position and word choice to incite a chaotic riot at The Capitol. I listened to his speech this morning--it was a tiresome task that can be summarized as a litany of conspiracy theories, lies, substantial praise for his audience, derogatory statements about the free press/democrats/"weak republicans, words of national pride, threats, the call to fight, and a false promise that he would walk to The Capitol with them. I added a few specific notes and the video of his speech below.
Throughout his tenure Donald Trump has made public manipulation the focus of his presidency. It appears that he and his heinous team have done that to prop up their personal power, privilege, pleasure, and wealth. He has done little to uplift the welfare of the people in the United States--he has not protected our environment, and he has created substantial struggle, divide, death, and destruction in all corners of our country.
As an elite, he has appealed to many everyday individuals--people who were seeking leadership and opportunity--he welcomed them in, yet his welcome was filled with lies, misinformation, conspiracies, and dangerous invitations to get involved in greater propaganda, lies, conspiracy theories, and insurrection. All of our words matter, but when you are the President of the United States, your words are very powerful, and when you choose words that are lies, propaganda, conspiracy, and manipulation, your words can ruin a good country, a strong government, individuals' reputations, and even lives. Donald Trump riled up his fans with lies, compliments, and threats--he inspired them to march to The Capitol and fight. He told them he would join them, but instead he partied with his team at the White House and watched the eventual vandalism threats, harm, and death on a number of screens with collective joy and celebration--it was propaganda well done. He achieved his goal of obstructing our government processes, threatening members of congress, defiling The Capitol, and creating a lot of publicity for himself. He has clearly abused his power, an abuse that resulted in costly vandalism, the dangerous spread of misinformation, lost time for the vital government process to confirm the election results, substantial threat/fear for all who experienced the insurrection and all who watched from their homes and businesses throughout the country and the world, and sadly the resulting deaths of five people including a police officer so far and injury of many more. This President did not work for the public good, instead he worked for his own gain, fame and sore-loser obsession with the fact that he lost a fair and legal election. He should be removed from office immediately and never hold office again. Further he should be held accountable and prosecuted for the crimes, vandalism, injury and death he incited that day. He should potentially be stripped of his citizenship and allowed to live with temporary immigration status alone.
This is the video of his tiresome speech filled with compliments for his fans, exaggeration, words of national pride, conspiracies, lies, misinformation, threats, disrespect for so many, and the call for his followers to fight.
These are some descriptions and vignettes from the speech.
- He began with a big smile and words that decry the media--he set up a media vs the people conflict at the start of his talk while he exaggerated the number of people at the event.
- He spoke with his usual theatrical style standing tall with a good stage/backdrop (the White House), purposeful intonation, volume, and pause.
- He states that the people came from all over the world. (Some suspect that foreign enemies have planted spies and others into these Trump fan groups)
- He again mentions the media as the enemy, and mentions "fake news." Then he mentioned the "rigged election" and praises his crowd. They cheer--he exaggerates the numbers again and praises them again and again as he condemns the democrats, the media, and spreads words of election fraud. He says he will not concede, and says they will not take it anymore from the country. (Throughout his leadership Trump has exaggerated numbers time and again for all kinds of manipulative reasons)
- He says he will "stop the steal" which refers to his conspiracy theory that the election was rigged. He says he won the election by a landslide--he spreads lie after lie after lie. He uses stats to prove his propaganda--he seeds doubt in the election integrity via word after work after word. (This likely fuels the anger and rage of the audience).
- He says "third world countries elections are more honest" than our elections--he says that the democrats are trying to silence their voices--he stops as the group chants. He is a propaganda artist who uses word choice, speed of talk, facial expressions, and the stage and setting to prop up his powerful manipulation.
- He praises the police, the same police that his fans attacked at The Capitol, the same police that includes an officer that died at the event, and the same police who appear to represent some that aided this insurrection (Could it be that the Trump team targeted those officers with bribes or requests to aid the coup). He praises Giuliani and John (Hawley).
- He says that he hopes Mike Pence will do the right thing, again this is a lie because he makes it seem like Pence has power that he does not have. Trump, from his place of power, spreads lies about the United States Consitutional processes. He misinforms the audience about our government.
- He continues to praise his fans--he's riling them up. He questions Mike Pence's integrity and honesty in front of the crowd. He praises his fans again with accolades and mentions their love for the country--he plays to their desire for affection, compliments, and support.
- He stops to let them chant, mentions the numbers again--says the crowd goes all the way to the Washington Monument--he also decries the press again. Speaking against the free press is a thread through his speech.
- He praises the monuments and the names on them.
- He tells them that they have one goal which is to save the democracy, yet he decries the free press, spreads false information about how our government works, and spreads conspiracies about election fraud. He tells a bogus story to rile up the crowd again using his typical crowd-pleasing theater.
- He claims again that the election is fraudulant, he says that democrats and weak republicans have gotten away with election fraud for years. He says he helped many Republicans get elected--and compliments himself time and again.
- He decries "weak, pathemtic republicans" - he compliments the rowdy crowd again by saying they're stronger and smarter, saying that they are the people that build the nation.
- He ecries the democrats and "weak republicans" yet again.
- Says our country will be destroyed--seeds fear and purpose for these people with false threats.
- He tells them, "You have to get your people to fight, and if they don't fight we have to primary the hell out of the ones that don't fight. . . .we're going to let you know who they are. . .
- Falsely mentions the election as theft, spreads bogus information about the election again--he riles the crowd up with lies.
- Calls the votes "bullshit" - the crowd loves it when he swears, they cheer loudly. (Again and again he undermines our fair, free, just election)
- Trump stops to let the crowd cheer loudly, rile each other up.
- He decries Romney--he mentions the flight where Romney got heckled by Trump fans. He imitates Romney with a derogatory theatrical performance. Says Romney got slaughtered during an election. (By targeting individuals with this crowd, he puts their welfare in danger--another way he abuses his power)
- Trump agains says that the election was most corrupt in history of the country--he continually mentions the lie about election corruption. He repeats this again and again-he spreads this conspiracy theory. Once again decries the free press, says the free press supresses thought, speech and is the "enemy of the people." He repeats that again. Says that the free press is the biggest problem we have in USA.
- Says our government is worst than governments in third world countries.
- He says that local officials, state officials and democrats made illegal changes to election processes--he says they paved the way to fraud as never seen before--once again he repeats the false conspiracy theory about the elections.
- He falsely discusses the laws--he does not mention that he contested the election with over 50 lawsuits, and all the lawsuits were overturned by the courts. He does not educate these people about the laws, but instead repeats conspiracies, false information again and again and again.
- He then says that people want to cheat--he repeats one conspiracy theory after another. It's likely that most of these people simply believe what Trump says--Trump tells his lies with strength, theater, and conviction. I'm sure most people are not following his every word--words that are lies, words that he brought to the courts and used legal channels to counter, and the courts found his claims unsubstantial. He goes on and on and on with the false claims, conspiracies. . . .these people listen to him because since he's the President of the United States--they believe him.
- He goes on for well over an hour spouting lies, false information, and conspiracy theories.
- He says it is a matter of national security.
- ". . . Today is not the end, it's just the beginning (people are cheering loudly). . . .with your help in the past four years we built the greatest political movement. . . . .our fight. . .is just getting started. . . .we must stop the steal. . . . with your help we will finally pass powerful requirements for voter ID. . . .
- He decries big tech and section 230. Says tech monopolies abuse their power.
- He sets the stage for insurrection with specific words and phrases. He says that "together we will drain the Washington swamp and clean up the corruption in the nation's capitol. . . it's a dirty business. . .lot of bad people out there. . . . fantastic crowds. . .this time is all-time record. . .250,000. . . amazing patriots here today. . never more confident about nation's future. I have to say we have to be a little careful . . if we allow this group of people to illegally take over our country because it is illegal when the votes are illegal, when the way they got there is illegal, when the states that vote are given false and fraulent information. . . we're the greatest country on earth and we are were headed in right direction. . .they want to take down the wall. . .let's let everyone flow in. . .we did a great job with the wall. . . .got rid of catch-and-release and all of the stuff we had to live with. . .now the caravans think Biden is getting in . . .the caravans are forming again. . .want to rip off our country. . . .we have truth and justice on our side. . .we have a deep and ensuring love for America in our hearts. . .we love our country. . overwhelming pride in this country. . .we have it deep in our souls. . .together we are deterimned to defend and preserve government of the people by the people and for the people (loud cheering ensues). . .our brightests days are before us. . .one of our greatest achievements will be election security. . how corrupt our elections were. . . I said, something's wrong here. . .and we fight, we fight like hell, and if you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country anymore. . .my fellow Americans for our movement for our children and for our beloved country and I say this despite all thats happened, the best is yet to come. (loud cheering one hour and 10 minutes into speech). . . we're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue . . .we're going to the capitol and we're going to try to give . . democrats are hopeless. . not voting for anything. . .we're going to try to give our republicans the weak ones because the strong ones don't need our help . . we're going to try to give them the kind of pride and boldness they need to take back our country. . . lets walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. . .God Bless You. . God Bless America