Words Matter

By David M. Friend

You may not think there’s a connection to the attempt on President Donald Trump’s life at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington DC to the two Jewish men who were stabbed in a terror attack this past week in London.

But there is.

Both attacks were caused, in part, by words that spur violence, by words that incite, by words that enable the crazies, the radicals, the anarchists in our society to carry out their dastardly deeds.

These events of the past week, though distinct in context, illustrate how inflammatory rhetoric can erode social norms and lower the threshold for violence.

Hate speech operates by simplifying complex grievances into moral absolutes: Trump is a “facist,” he’s “Hitler.” He must be defeated by any means necessary. Jews, are “baby killers,” “Nazis.” They support a genocidal, colonialist, apartheid regime.

Those words spurred Essa Suleiman, who was known to British law enforcement’s anti-radicalization program, to hunt down Jews in Golders Green on Wednesday.

Those words gave permission to Cole Thomas Allen to pack up his guns and his knives, ride Amtrak from California all the way to Washington, D.C. to try to kill Trump and members of his administration, last Saturday night.

He said it in his 1,000 word manifesto he sent out just before the attack. He said it was his righteous duty to target the administration. He said he didn’t want the “crimes” of the administration to “coat [his] hands.”

When guys like ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel joke about Melania Trump having the glow of an “expectant widow”, or when politicians declare “war” on their rivals, or frame them as irredeemable evils, it signals that extreme measures are not only necessary but encouraged.

Similarly, the Golders Green stabbings cannot be divorced from the surge in antisemitic incidents following October 7th and the Israel-Hamas war.

Antisemitic hate speech—ranging from blood libels recycled as “Zionist entity” conspiracies, chants equating Jews with Nazis, to social media’s amplification of tropes about Jewish control—has skyrocketed.

In the UK, there have been a series of incidents targeting Jews. There have been physical attacks on people and fire bombings of a synagogue and Jewish-run ambulances. There have been patrols of people knocking on doors to ferret out Jewish residents.

The London police department has allowed “globalize the intifada” marches in Jewish neighborhoods and has perversely accused Jews of incitement.

British leaders have refused to call out radical Islam for what it is; anti-western, anti-Christian and anti-Jewish.

Finally, this past week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer acknowledged that British Jews feel “scared” and “intimidated,” wondering if they belong in Britain anymore. Finally, this past week, he said “If you stand alongside people who say “globalize the intifada, you are calling for terrorism against Jews…It is racism, extreme racism” Finally, this past week, he said “I call on everyone decent in this country to open their eyes to Jewish pain, Jewish suffering and Jewish fear.”

The Golders Green attacks and the attempted attack on Donald Trump, reveal parallel dynamics. Consistency demands recognizing that both hyperbolic anti-Trump and antisemitic rhetoric contribute to real harm.

Public figures need to mind their mouths, without abandoning their principles. Clear condemnation of violent, hateful language that separates policy differences from personal demonization, are essential.

Hate speech may not actually kill people, haters do, but it clearly cultivates a climate for the haters to act. It dehumanizes, making aggression seem not only justifiable but necessary. The nefarious power of hate speech is its ability to corrode the shared humanity that underpins civilized society.

Ultimately, the attempted assassination at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and the stabbings in London, serve as stark warnings to us all that words matter, rhetoric matters. Believe it.