"Un-Civil Tongues": Hate, Violence & Power. Sticks & Stones Can Break Your Bones & Names Can Get You Murdered. The Intersection of Hate Speech & Violence. Cockroaches, the Enemy Within. Donald Trump & the Radical Rhetoric that promoted Rwandan Genocide.

Welcome to this explosive, investigative, fact-finding edition of Light ‘Em Up!

We are incredibly pleased you decided to join us for one of our most comprehensive episodes to date!

Tonight, we shine the antiseptic light of the truth at the intersection of hate speech and the violence that stems from it.

While a great many people on the right strongly disagree with the truth, and struggle to accept it, the fact that the radical right is far more violent than the left is unwavering. Far-right attacks continue to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism.

As a kid do you remember expressing the children’s rhyme that says, “Sticks and stones can break your bones, but names can never hurt you?” While this is a nice thought — it isn‘t true. Words matter; words can hurt — words can lead to murder.

In the Holy Bible, the Book of Ephesians (4:29) advises: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, which may benefit those who listen.” 

We need only look to the country of Rwanda in 1994 and the genocide that took place there. Collectively and pejoratively, the Tutsis were referred to as “cockroaches”.  Who acts neighborly or welcomes a cockroach into their home? Some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in 100 days. (The Tutsi and Hutu are ethnic groups established primarily in Rwanda and Burundi.)

Evidence shows that the use of radio impacted and effected mobilization for violence in the Rwandan genocide.

For more than a decade we’ve been exposed to the hate filled vitriol of Donald Trump. The words he willingly and intentionally chooses are often filled with hate.

It is evident from his outward behavior; Donald Trump is not happy.  Barack Obama haunts him in thought, word, and past deed.

Trump regularly refers to anyone who isn’t in his “in-group” as “the enemy of the people” … “animals” and “scum”, you name it.

His targets have been the press as a whole and individual journalists, immigrants, Blacks, LGBTQ+ people, Democrats, and whomever he chooses in the moment.

His third-grade vocabulary has no filter. His political party does nothing to hold him to account for his vile, hate-filled rhetoric, even opting to echo and use it often.

Rarely does he open his mouth without denigrating, dehumanizing, blaming, or accusing another person of doing something with no evidence.

In this explosive episode we will highlight:

—    As a case study we’ll examine how hate speech can and does facilitate violence. From the genocide that took place in 1994 in Rwanda we offer a special feature in hearing from Henriette Mutegwaraba, survivor of the genocide and founder of the Million Lives Genocide relief fund.

—    Multiple examples of the vile, hateful, and demagogic language that Donald Trump spews with regularity and comparing and contrasting his words with that of the Rwandan genocide.

And much, much more!

“The enemy of the people” are words Adolph Hitler used to describe the Jews before his “final solution” was put into effect which killed some 6 million people.

This is the language of insecure, fascist, racist, dictatorial demagogues, and it is extremely dangerous.

In his book entitled Behemoth, first published in 1942, Franz Neumann wrote that violence served to establish totalitarian control over German society.

Violence throughout the Third Reich was used as a rational instrument of political power.

Donald Trump’s administration does the same.

Democracy is dying right in front of us.

Don’t move a muscle!

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