Think Before You Speak
“Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.” — Buddha
This edition of Something To Think About will look at the impact of language, whether hostile or empathic. If you find this newsletter to be interesting, please share it with those who will enjoy it too.
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The Democratic National Convention wrapped up this week and Michelle Obama’s speech stood out. She spoke with compassion as she described the beauty and struggle of our American history. She spoke with conviction when she explained the importance of empathy, the impact of language, and the power of the president’s words:
“A president's words have the power to move markets. They can start wars or broker peace. They can summon our better angels or awaken our worst instincts. You simply cannot fake your way through this job.”
Joe Biden’s speech was in a similar tone to Michelle’s. He began:
“Ella Baker, a giant of the Civil Rights Movement, left us with this wisdom: ‘Give people light and they will find the way.’ Give people light. The current president’s cloaked American darkness for much too long. Too much anger. Too much fear. Too much division. Here and now I give you my word. If you entrust me with the presidency, I will draw on the best of us, not the worst. I will be an ally of the light, not the darkness.”
This strategic messaging is in stark contrast to Trumps (obviously). On the same night of Joe Biden’s speech, Trump delivered his own to a crowd in Pennsylvania. It’s borderline incoherent so I am including a few highlights below. You can read a fact-checked transcript here:
“They want to cancel you, totally cancel you. Take your job. Turn your family against you for speaking your mind, while they indoctrinate your children with twisted, twisted world views that nobody ever thought possible.”
“...the Green New Deal. You know what you get out of that? Nothing. Nothing except debt and death.”
“Give free healthcare to illegal aliens. You don’t get free healthcare? Expand deadly sanctuary cities. Force taxpayers to subsidize late-term abortion.”
“They want to throw up windmills that are going to ruin your houses.”
“If you want a vision of your life under Biden presidency, think of the smoldering ruins in Minneapolis, the violent anarchy of Portland, the bloodstained sidewalks of Chicago, and imagine the mayhem coming to your town and every single town in America.”
The Republican National Convention starts Monday, August 24th. This is their time to paint a picture of the future of America. I ask you to pay close attention and compare the language and strategy between the two parties.
According to the FBI, hate crimes in the U.S. hit a 16-year high in 2018. Hate crimes aren’t a new phenomenon but we can easily trace the recent uptick to Trump’s presence in politics. I wanted to understand how and why Trump crafted his communication strategy based on fear and anger, which led me to Roger Stone.
I highly recommend watching the 2017 documentary Get Me Roger Stone on Netflix. If you don’t know, Roger Stone is a lifelong Republican, lobbyist, political consultant, and an influencer dating back to the Nixon administration. He’s like this “bad boy” meets “oddball” of the Republican party. He plays dirty.
Roger Stone had an essential role in shaping Trump’s communication strategy and approach to politics. It’s equally enlightening and infuriating to understand how intentionally vicious and divisive his approach is. The documentary breaks down “Stone’s Rules” such as:
It’s better to be infamous than never to be famous at all.
The only thing worse in politics than being wrong is being boring.
I am the candidate of law and order.
And the most frightening rule:
Hate is a more powerful motivator than love.
Stone explained why he had his eye on Trump since the 80s, planting the seed for him to run for office one day. He said Trump has “the balls” and the “toughness” to be his type of politician. He was gitty with the fact that his “brand of politics” finally made it into the mainstream. And that brand exploits the worst in us: fear, anger, and hate.
I can’t pretend to know what motivates Donald Trump or Roger Stone other than chaos and power but Jane Mayer, writer for The New Yorker, simply explains their point of view:
“They think people who take the high road or who try to act virtuously are chumps.”
I won’t dive deeper into Get Me Roger Stone but a huge takeaway for me is the impact hostile and dehumanizing language has on us. Our word choice is so important because emotion is attached to the words we use. Those emotions become our thoughts. Those thoughts lead to action and policy. For example, we can look at how we describe a few hot button policies:
Immigration: Illegal aliens vs. undocumented immigrants. The term “illegal alien”, although it's a legal term, automatically others immigrants and creates a separation between “them” and you, an American citizen. Illegal is a negative frame, immediately connecting this person with something inherently wrong, maybe even dangerous. Alien, you associate with not being human, incapable of human feelings, or having the same experience as you. You don’t connect “alien” to who they really are as mom, dad, child. Just like you. Compare this to undocumented which means no paperwork. And immigrant, a person who moves to another country. It’s a hell of a lot easier to invoke fear and hate when you strip people of their human qualities.
Abortion: Pro-life & pro-choice vs. anti-choice & pro-choice. I choose to describe abortion through anti-choice and pro-choice because the debate is over the right for a pregnant person to choose what they will with their bodies and their healthcare. Pro-life is misleading. If you’re “pro-life”, whose life are you advocating for? The issue at hand is about choice and control: control of your own body and the choice to do what is best for you.
Masks: Wearing a mask is infringing on my rights and living in fear vs. wearing a mask is an act of kindness and precaution. Unfortunately, we’re used to seeing these public tantrums play out across social media. Wearing a mask to protect yourself and others from a virus is no different than wearing a seatbelt, not texting and driving, or wearing oven mitts when opening a hot oven. Protection meant to safeguard you is not equivalent to oppression.
So what do we do with all of this? To echo Obama and Biden, we have to work hard and together to become empathic. Simply defined, empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing. The only way through this moment is to finally see ourselves in each other and challenge others to do the same.
James Baldwin once said, “we can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.” This is precisely where we are today. As we continue to fight our two massive battles of COVID 19 and systemic racism, the difference of opinion vs. oppression is the line Trumpism blurs. I highly recommend reading this article by Dr. Sherry Hamby, who does an incredible job of breaking down dehumanization. What Trump and his enablers are doing is separating us from ourselves by removing the human piece of our language, our actions, and our politics.
Things weren’t fair before Trump but if we have four more years of his leadership, where will we be? On the micro-level, our vote counts. And on the macro-level, our vote counts. I think the reason why Michelle Obama’s simple yet profound quote “when they go low, we go high” is so meaningful is because it demands us to be better. Better because we simply know it's the right thing to do. Give people light.
<3 Adriana <3