I wrote this piece on Facebook January 7, 2021 the day after the Capitol was invaded by insurrectionists. I wanted to post my thoughts here as well to document on how this could happen. I write about Donald Trump’s Rhetoric in my book, “Political Rhetoric, Social Media, and American Presidential Campaigns.“
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If you’re confused about how yesterday could happen. Let’s take a look at the history of Trump’s words. The bus tape was the first to reveal that he thought he could grab a woman’s private parts and get away with it because they want it. He thinks he can TAKE whatever doesn’t belong to him.
Since 2015 when the 2016 election cycle began, he told us repeatedly who he is through his words. HIS WORDS. They were divisive, they were mean, they were dangerous. He blatantly called Russia to action during a news conference to hack Hillary’s emails.
In 2020 he began the voter fraud conspiracy theory by smearing the United States Post Office. He put doubt in people’s minds that their vote wouldn’t count.
When he lost, he had NO proof of voter fraud. Basic logic wasn’t presented in Trump’s argument. No proof. And, remember, there’s more than just POTUS on a ballot. This would mean local and state election results wouldn’t count either. Again, basic logic is lost.
Trump fed his supporters’ already held beliefs through media. He was allowed to spread his message through the media. He called into news programs. His tweets made news. Media spread his message, thinking they would reveal Trump’s unstable ways.
No, they did not. The repetition of Trump’s message even when the media reported their absurdity and falsehoods fed the supporters to believe Trump’s Fake News claim. He talked directly to the supporter. Don’t like CNN? Okay, watch OANN or NewsMax. Don’t like Facebook—use Parler.
Trump did a great job isolating the voices and collecting like-minded folks to spread the conspiracy theories and lies. Social Media allowed Trump to amplify his message to enable his supporters.
Yesterday, Trump led a rally and called his troops to action that he has primed for this moment for four years. Propaganda and Lies targeting their already held beliefs—strengthening them—led these people to storm the Capitol.
Words are powerful, coupled with the means to spread them quickly and wide. People share the lies and start to recruit and organize. Hashtags, targeted apps, and let us not forget foreign influences that strengthen all these ingredients to create the perfect storm.
We all must be more responsible with our words. We must stand up to leaders who misuse their power. We must stop the mindless social media share. We must become our own fact-checking advocates. We must uphold the power of good journalism.
We are so lucky to have freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to petition, freedom of religion, and the freedom of assembly. Trump tried to destroy freedom of speech and freedom of the press and wanted to cherry-pick who could assemble and petition.
We can’t let the hand-held device we all carry around staring at that’s filled with a gray area of truths and falsehoods destroy our democracy. Media in the hands of Americans is new. And we must start becoming more responsible by believing ideas amplified online live to enable people to take action offline.
These people who stormed the Capitol yesterday already believed what they believed. The social media they participate in solidified those already held beliefs and allowed them to recruit and organize quicker than without social media. Remember Egypt in 2011?
Calling on all Media, Citizens, Politicians, and Journalists, let’s all protect our five freedoms by learning how to become better digital citizens by listening more online. When you’re online, stop being passive media consumers and become a more active media participant who questions more.
