When you catch an adjective, kill it.
This advice was given by Mark Twain to one of his students.
His words of caution should have been taken seriously, not only by aspiring writers, but politicians as well.
The overuse of adjectives, adverbs and hyperboles became the new norm in political discourse.
In the toxic, social-media driven world of modern politics, every election became “a life or death matter”, a simple geopolitical consideration (think Russia’s invasion of Ukraine) became “the fight between bad and evil”, the opposition became “the enemy” or the “reincarnation of Hitler” or another toxic historical figure, and every differing opinion became “blasphemy”.
Just like in the Matrix, nobody knows who started the process that now seems to have spiralled out of hand, as everybody tried to say “bigger” things than the other, creating a perpetual feedback loop.
But it doesn’t matter.
A few days ago, an 80-year old man was killed in his own home for placing a Trump election sing on his lawn. The attacker, a 22-year-old man committed suicide.
This happened just days after the failed assassination attempt against Donald Trump. Now, not Trump was the first American politician to suffer such fate (in fact, 58 American politicians had been assassinated since 1815, most of them killed for their views or over disputed electoral results by the supporters of their opponents). The last one was Ronald Reagan, who was almost killed about 40 years ago in Washington.
But the trend seems to have accelerated lately and spread to other parts of the globe, as well.
In the run-up for the European parliamentary elections, several attacks happened in Germany, bringing worries over “political violence and a breakdown on civility”. In 2023 alone, 2,790 attacks (physical and verbal alike) on political representatives were registered, roughly twice as many as in 2019.
Slovakia saw a series of assassinations in the early ‘90s as part of its transition from Soviet-style statehood to democracy, but those were rarely politically motivated (understand: organized crime was more often a factor than ideology). But the country has been relatively peaceful since then, thus the assassination attempt against Prime Minister Robert Fico on May 15, 2024 was a wakeup call, drawing attention to societal polarization.
Slovakian politicians immediately pointed at the dangers of “tribal politics”, and the “witches’ brew of hateful rhetoric demonizing political opponents”.
Then came the assassination attempt against Donald Trump. Committed by yet another 22-year old.
“Script as through a copy machine. If the attacker of D. Trump knew Slovakian, it would be enough for him to read the newspapers N, Sme or Aktuality to feel the urge to sort things out with the disobedient former US president. Script as through a copy machine. Donald Trump’s political opponents try to shut him down and when they don’t succeed, they annoy the public so much that some poor guy takes a gun. And now we will witness speeches about the need for reconciliation, appeasement and forgiveness…”
These words were written by Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico on July 13, drawing attention to the similarities between the two attempts.
He was right.
Condolences and calls to “turn down the rhetorical heat” started to pour in from every segment of America. President Joe Biden himself has urged Americans to “lower the temperature in our politics. While we may disagree, we are not enemies. We are neighbours, we’re friends, coworkers, citizens, and most importantly, we are fellow Americans. We must stand together. (…) We cannot, we must not go down this road in America.”
Somewhat ironic after his remarks from a previous day before, during his phone-call with Democratic Party donors, “I have one job, and that’s to beat Donald Trump. I’m absolutely certain that I’m the best person to be able to do that. So, we’re talking about the debate. It’s time to put Trump in a bull’s-eye.”
Not President Biden was the first, though, to call for Trump’s “elimination”, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) did the same in 2023, when he said on MSNBC, “it’s just unquestionable at this point that that man cannot see public office again. He is not only unfit, he is destructive to our democracy, and he has to be, he has to be eliminated.”
Biden’s (and Dan Goldman’s) intention might have been metaphorical.
Thomas Matthew Crooks took it literally.
The calls to “tone it down” are now out there.
Hopefully, not too late.
But many fear that the current political climate has gone “beyond the scope of basic human decency”, when instead of reasons and arguments, only controversy fuels the discourse, and change will come along only slowly.
