The West’s Rhetoric Crisis: No One’s Listening Anymore

“If rhetoric is the new weapon of choice, then America is already at war with itself.” From Minnesota to Washington, the noise has drowned out nuance, and political tribes are no longer talking—only shouting. In this episode of the Rant Network, David dives into how media spin, political grandstanding, and social‑media‑fueled outrage are pushing society toward dangerous extremes. Whether it’s ICE operations, provocative politicians, or culture‑war battles over TV shows, the conversation has become less about solving problems and more about scoring points. It’s time to step back, cut through the noise, and ask: how far are we willing to let rhetoric divide us?

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Transcript

Solo Host And Episode Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Yes, everybody, I'm black. And I'm alone. Stuart's away. Conflicting him well. In the meantime, once again, it just doesn't stop. The rhetoric that you and I have been hearing again and again and again in the media, it just doesn't want a seem to stop. And it's interesting because both sides, left and right, accuse each other of the same thing. You're stoking, you're gaslighting, you're creating this problem. But it's interesting to note that each side is not listening to the other. And it's we're just getting deeper and deeper and deeper into the noise, into the into everything. So today I'm just going to share with you a couple things in terms of just how the media has handled it, how politicians have handled it, and how you and I are getting caught in a real firestorm in terms of what's what is real and what is not. Welcome back, everybody. I'm David Solomon. This is the Rant Network, where every Monday, Wednesday, Friday at noon Eastern we do a rant. We talk about politics, social issues, culture, you name it, and so much more. It's all about absurdities of life. It's stuff that you at the dining room table are having a hard time talking to your friends and neighbors because they stopped talking to you. They don't want to hear these things. They're calling you an extremist. Well, that's all part of today's rant, but that is why we do what we do since for the last five almost six years. So sit back to folks, because today I am going to go solo and talk about rhetoric. So the purest definition of rhetoric is what is happening right now in Minnesota. Now, I've spoken to a few people in Minnesota who live there. I've spoken to Americans who do not even live in Minnesota. And it's fascinating that what they how they express themselves is almost what they hear in the media. It's what the noise from the news and their social channels are feeding them. If you look at what is going on, and let's just take a step back. ICE agents are right now going across the United States since Donald Trump has entered office in January of 20, January 20th, 2025. He's instructed ICE to go in and to get rid of the worst of the worst, the criminals that are there, the people who are gang members, and ICE has been deployed across the country. Now, what seems to happen is that the left doesn't like this because this is the base that they want to bring in. They've convinced Americans on the left that these people are good and that these people need a new home. And the United States should just be a sanctuary for everyone. Don't ask questions. And on the right, they're saying, absolutely not. We need due process, and criminals should not be allowed in this country under any circumstance. I agree with that. Okay? I agree that there's a law and order and a process. I know people who've tried to immigrate to immigrate into countries and were told, no, we have a process. You must adhere to the process. And if someone comes across the border and says, I need to, you know, I need asylum, I need to, I want to immigrate or whatever, there is a process. But when you come in illegally and you start to take away, you know, you start to sorry, start to cause crime and you start to do, you know, rape and murders and drugs and whatever, I agree it's time to get rid of them. Okay, that's my opinion. I don't agree with the folks on the left who think that everybody should be in, no questions asked. My opinion. But you're not going to see me yelling this at rooftops or in people's faces. And I'm not going to drive messages just for the sake of politics. To me, it's about public safety. And this, folks, is where the media and politicians have simply lost their minds. Public safety is not a concern for so many of these people because of what is going on. Now, in Minnesota, let's go back to Minnesota a handful of weeks ago. This woman, Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old woman, mother from Minnesota, drove her car, hit an ICE agent, and was killed. Now, there are speculation all abound about her intention, how it was handled, and so forth. Her intentions, as we saw in video, wasn't of self-defense, but of she was literally driving around, as we caught on video, looking for the agents. There are instigators out there, there are agitators out there, paid, non-paid. Okay. There are those who really believe in this cause and want to send a message to the agent, the ICE agents. Okay. Using your vehicle, let's get let's be straight about something. I don't agree that she should have been shot, and I don't agree with what had happened. But again, let's take the rhetoric out of the out of it and let's analyze it a little bit better. ICE agents, there are apparently 2,000% more uh threats to ICE agents in the last year. Across the US, many on the left, many extremists are going after ICE. They've been told by authorities to defy. And when you say defy, sometimes it goes way too far. We've seen ICE agents being shot, we've seen ICE agents being attacked, we've seen ICE agents being the physical assaults are off the charts. And so it's no wonder that an ICE agent thought this woman in her car was trying to kill him. Now, it's easy for all of us to sit here as the Monday morning quarterbacks and say that agent was wrong. And in essence, there will be an investigation and they will say how things were handled in Minnesota and how things are being handled in Minnesota is not well. And that's why Mr. Trump has changed who's going in there. He's put in Tom Holman, he's putting in a new system in there because Minnesota's basically absolutely fallen apart. But hold on. Let's remind you, let me remind you, everybody, that yes, stuff happens. It's terrible. I am not going to tell you that Rene Nicole Good, who was killed, that should have happened. No one should die. But at the same time, where is the authority? Where are the people to slow this down? Mr. Trump is called basically, I'll paraphrase, it's called Minnesota Shit Show. He has absolutely vilified and attacked the people there, the authorities there. Rhetoric. But on the other hand, the governor and the mayor have also been rhetoric. And you hear the governor asking people to film ice agents. Defy. Calling them Gestapo. Comparing it this past week to the child that the children of Minnesota are afraid, just like Anne Frank. If you're telling me that this is good, you're off your off the charts. Now, here's the thing: the media doesn't help either. CNN, their first their opening sentence in their in their um in their in their in their in their way they're portraying this, is she was that Renee was a mother of three who loved to sing and write poetry, shot and killed by Ice Age Ice in Minneapolis. And that's why you started. And Renee, so they said the woman shot and killed, blah, blah, blah. Stunned by neighbors, shocked by the circumstances. She had a 37-year-old U.S. citizen was killed, shot into her vehicle during an encounter Wednesday morning. Good's ex-husband said she had just dropped off her six-year-old at Sunday when she encountered the ICE agents. Now, again, these are twisted words because we have videos to show differently. ICE says she weaponized her vehicle, and that's later in the article. Once again, where do you stand politically, Mr. Media, Mrs. Media? If you're on the CNN, MSNBC, MS Now, whatever you want to call yourself, left, then no matter how it is, you're going to paint whatever happens here in the worst way possible. And if you're Fox and if you're Newsmax, you're going to paint it in the possible best way. But no one is neutral. No one is neutral. The idea here is to push the narrative. And when you have Elon Omar screaming and yelling, swearing like a lunatic about the way we're treating immigrants and what have you, this stokes the rhetoric. When you've got a you've got you know conservatives on the right who do the same, we are not solving a problem, we're just building a bigger fire. Now, I'm hugely saddened by the fact that it went a step further when unfortunately a um a nur a nurse, Alex Predi, uh US Affairs IC units, was shot and killed uh by barter patrol agents. And when you look at the story, you're like, oh my god, this is terrible. But to turn around and to use once again Gestapo, stormtroopers, all these visuals. I'm sorry, it's in it's offensive, ladies and gentlemen. This is Holocaust Memorial Week. And to use those terms here is offensive to the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust, who perished in World War II, because you're comparing the worst and the worst of history to an out-of-control incident. The United States is not being, there's no Hitler in power, these aren't Gestapo and stormtroopers, these are not people who are trying to go state by state and kill people. It's unfortunately isolated in one state in one area, and it's not getting better. Now, the right is going to tell you that 49 other states, you don't have a problem. So what does the left do? Rev up the noise on the other side. Again, rhetoric, rhetoric. It's not helping the situation at all. Now it goes even beyond that. I mentioned Elon Omar. Elon Omar thinks she's got, you know, she's a Teflon. And she could say and swear all she wants. That's okay. She, you know, when she says, quote, you know, she was there, someone tried to to assault her with a foul order. And, you know, she just said, you know, please don't let them have the show. We will continue. These fucking assholes are not gonna get away with this. Bravo. The president swears, offends people.

unknown 11:26

Bad.

Politicians Amping The Outrage

Culture War Detour: Star Trek

Fragmentation, Extremes, And Civil Strain

SPEAKER_00 11:28

President shouldn't do that. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Rhetoric. And then Elon Omar does these things, and other politicians have done these things, swearing to drive their points. This rhetoric doesn't even stop there. Stephen Miller doesn't like the new Star Trek show. Okay, Starfleet Academy. I'm a trekkie. Others I know are trekkies. I haven't watched the show yet, so I can't say. But Star Trek was the most progressive show in its day. In the 1960s, if you watch it now, you're like, eh, no big deal. But back then, it was a really big game changer. Conservatives didn't like it because the message is driven there. Interracial kissing, uh, other policies, end of nuclear war. You got people on both sides who didn't really care for the show. Today, you don't even think about it because that's part of our culture. But Stephen Miller doesn't like it. And for those of you who don't know who Stephen Miller is, he's a White House Deputy Chief of Staff. So instead of drown playing and saying, hey guys, it's a TV show, Gina Yesher, who plays Lura Thawk on the new show, said, all of the hatred coming at us is from fragile, angry white men talking about either our non-whiteness or our bodies. It's frankly ridiculous, and it makes me want to lean even more into our wokeness. Seriously, this is it. This is the rhetoric I'm talking about. It really makes no sense. We're not listening to each other, we're yelling, and we're just the noise is just going across each other. No one is listening. Stephen Milley, you don't like the show? Don't watch it. But to tell me that you're gonna dive deep into your wokeness and you're gonna demand it that this is the way it's gonna be. Ah, come on. Have we not learned anything? It seems that the United States and part of the West, and I hate to say it, is waiting for another 9-11 to kind of rally back together. A cause, a situation, an attack that will bring people back together and they're gonna go, okay, we are one. We are one people. Unfortunately, it just seems that the rhetoric and the and the extremism is ripping apart, you know, political parties in the states, political parties in Canada, that people are going further and further out. It's forcing conservatives, some extreme conservatives, want to then punish people on the left by getting rid of certain policies. The left wants to do the same thing to the right. Punish. This isn't unity, ladies and gentlemen. This is what causes countries to fall apart. And I said years ago I was wondering if there would ever be a civil war in the United States. And when I see and I hear this kind of dumbass rhetoric, yeah, there are still people who wish that Donald Trump would have been assassinated. I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. Do I want to see Joe? Did I want to see Joe Biden or Barack Obama or Bill Clinton assassinated? Hell no. The opposite. The best times in history is when people and democracies work together. Democracy isn't perfect. Let's get real. Because when you think about it, the more democratic that you want to be, the less you have a majority and less you have an opportunity to govern appropriately. So, yes, when you look at the United States and say, well, in order to get rid of this rhetoric, we need a third party. But we have three parties plus in Canada, and we can't even get a majority government, which means we can't govern properly, which means people and rhetoric continues to get stoked. So we need to understand that. Yes, there's my team, and as you can see today, I'm wearing my team. This is my team, and I love my team, and I want to cheer for my Montreal Canadians that they will win the championship. But at no point do I go in politics, I cheer for my team. I want my team to win, but not at the expense of alienating every other person who doesn't agree with me. That's what rhetoric is doing. In order for us to work together, to be stronger, to prosper, to watch our economies grow, to watch other things become better, we have to stop. And I know this is a kumbaya, very rainbow and unicorn type of statement. And I know it ain't gonna happen because rhetoric sells, rhetoric drives votes. But when we go too far, people die. And then you gotta ask yourself what's next. Thank you, everybody. Hope you have a great week. I'm gone on Friday. Stuart will be here in his usual chair, and I'll be back on Monday. Have yourself a great rest of the week, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you so much for everything, and I'll see you next week.