Noise #93
Words as weapons
Over the last few days, The New York Times and other publications have featured articles about the violent rhetoric erupting in the wake of Trump’s indictment—and the actual violence such rhetoric could cause.
This (the coverage, not the rhetoric/violence) is good to see.
I’ve long believed in the power of wrong words at wrong times via wrong messengers to ignite fires and smudge out moral boundaries (check out this fascinating study). And when anyone uses a bullhorn to scream political commentary in terms of slaughter and entrails—the damage runs deep.
It’s a little dissonant, though, to see papers like the Times blaring alarm-filled headlines on this topic. Because that publication, and others like it, have been part of the problem.
Here’s part of a Letter to the Editor I wrote a few years ago. It describes the weirdly brutal imagery used by Times reporters to document the Nevada Democratic primary debate:
Will Wilkinson commented that “Warren sliced Bloomberg’s Achilles before he could get off the line.” Gil Duran described a “bloody dogpile on Bloomberg.” Ross Douthat referenced a “Chris Christie-knifing-Marco Rubio scenario.” And Maureen Dowd wrote that Warren “ground her heel into Bloomberg’s trachea from the first minute.” This list is far from comprehensive, and sadly, such violent metaphors are far from unique.
Words matter. When violent language in political reporting goes unchecked, it follows a Trumpian trajectory - normalizing the crude, making it standard to associate peaceful democratic debate with bodily harm, and lowering the conceptual threshold between talking about politics in violent terms and acting violently with politics as the trigger.
Maybe it’s a fantasy right now, but I believe that political debate from all shades of the spectrum—and news coverage thereof—can evolve to not resemble play-by-play commentary of a gladiatorial death match. Or notes from a rejected script for Saw: Chapter 3,298.
At their best, politics and reporting can build cathedrals greater than the hands and materials that formed them, societal structures that each of us may not wholeheartedly adore—but in which we can find at least a modicum of shelter and a few drips of pride.
With that in mind, here’s Noise #93. I created this improv thinking of crude realities and hopeful dreams alike.
Wishing you peace,
Michael
(Noise #93 by Michael Gallant. Copyright 2023 Gallant Music LLC. All Rights Reserved.)