The Angry Man by Daumier

--

Part 12 of The Post-Constitutional Election series is here.

Marten Gantelius first caught my attention with the following comment posted at Gates of Vienna during the early days of the American Betrayal wars.

Such an assessment sounds shocking; but, I will add, it is one I have heard in hardly dissimilar terms and separately from experienced intelligence professionals, who, having studied the "disinformation campaign" against American Betrayal, have explained it to me as an effort to destroy my work and "kill" me -- my reputation as a reputable author -- for the future.

Marten Gantelius would later apply his tools to offer a "linguistic perspective" on a subsequent three-part series about American Betrayal, which he published here at J.R. Nyquist. (If you read it, be sure and click on the links so that you can see his underlined worksheets, illustrating his technique.)  

But this post is not about all of that -- except insofar as the "language of violence" and its use in the destruction of a person or persons is relevant to understanding the unceasing public campaign not usually against the policies of Donald Trump (just as the attacks on American Betrayal were not against its actual contents), but rather mainly against his person and his supporters.

Almost as a lark, I began some weeks ago to collect the jaw-dropping and dehumanizing abuse heaped on Trump and Trump voters from the right side of the political spectrum. I am talking about the writings and utterances of GOP political professionals -- consultants, speechwriters, commentators -- and journalists, who write for or edit conservative publications, or who are hired to express a conservative or right-leaning point of view.

It is hard to describe what this dictionary or lexicon has since become -- but if the Nile were a sewer the metaphor would not be far off. The list of slurs and ugly talk is alphabetical now, but I probably should redesign it by category: the language of Hitler and facsism category (Glenn Beck is a leader here); the language of Trump-as-disease category (cancer, virus, chlamydia, STD); the language of deviant sexuality category (Kevin Williamson, Rick Wilson and Erick Erickson excel here); the Trump supporter abuse category; the Trump supporter as traitor/collaborator category (including talk of blacklists, summary executions); the language of bitterness/contempt category. The language of scatology. All this from the very same people who cluck about Trump's "tone."

I could go on and on, subdividing this language of violence. There is even, recklessly, dangerously, the language of literal violence: put a bullet in him ... stabbing ... slit throats ... machine gun ... the invocation of assassination from Ross Douthat at the New York Times.

I asked Marten Gantelius what he thought of my lexicon. Of course, I didn't need his expert opinion to know this rancid body of rhetoric is the language of violence. But I wondered if there was something more he would see. He didn't disappoint.

He wrote:

Hello again Diana,

Your Trump Lexicon is a good example of the Language of Violence.

When the LoV is used, violence is both the means and the ends. It can be disguised by a variety of “good” pretexts.

Almost always, the LoV is the source of a following physical violence.  And it is important to understand that it is deliberate with the modern roots in the massive Soviet dezinformatsiya industry.

Conclusion: Stop classifying people as leftists, conservatives, environmentalists etc. Classify them according to the language they use! I have done it for years  - I know it works.

All the best

Marten