By now Trump and his rhetoric come with a track record of stirring anger, divisiveness and outright violence. Timothy Snyder, Yale Universit
Recognizing Trump's Patterns and Rhetorical Tricks
Timothy Snyder, Yale University history professor: I mean the fascists authoritarians, they did not have to personally kill people. They used language. And that specific dehumanizing language - calling people 'beasts' and saying 'my opponents can't be in power because they are the ones who are on the side of the beasts'. That has a very specific history so the words are the actions. The words matter in themselves.
Interviewer: Because the goal is to get people to take on these ideas and deal with them.
Snyder: The goal is to say these 'other people on that side, the ones who help the animals, they are not real Americans'. 'They can't possibly be in power. They can't possibly be legitimate.'
And, so combining it with the notion of elections that are faked and the idea that they are on the side of the 'subhumans' is meant to rally people so that they think violence is acceptable, And we know this can work because his words caused violence on January 6 2021. He [Trump] knows it can work and that's what he is going for.
3/19/24 MSNBC