In his Language of the Third Reich, Victor Klemperer described Nazism as a linguistic barrage. A way of warping minds and subverting democratic values through rhetorical excess.

Klemperer knew what this language harbored:

“What happens if the cultivated language is made up of poisonous elements or has been made the bearer of poisons? Words can be like tiny doses of arsenic; they are swallowed unnoticed, appear to have no effect, and then after a little time, the toxic reaction sets in.”

Something from last October on MAGA language:

https://progressive.org/op-eds/trumps-rhetoric-is-frightening-and-toxic-karn-20241029/

@juergen_hubert

The main thing I take from it is how the language prepares the soil for violence.

@xankarn @juergen_hubert

"How the language prepares the soil for acceptable violence."