The Consequences of Crying Wolf
Iwatched the events unfold on January 6, 2021, and felt as if I were watching a movie. Were there really people scaling the wall of the Capitol? Watching the images of riot and destruction unfold on television brought on a panic attack. Why was this happening? It’s clear that these events represent a failure of leadership, a failure of rhetoric, and a failure to hold elected representatives responsible for their words.
The attempted insurrection of January 6 was the direct result of repeated, unsubstantiated lies (the election was stolen, there was widespread fraud, we won in a landslide) repeated by President Trump and others in leadership. When Republican leaders did not challenge Trump on his rhetoric, the people believed him. Joseph Goebbels was unfortunately right that “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” A huge section of our country, made up of people I love, believed lies and conspiracy theories that were trumpeted over and over on social media platforms and in speeches.
In my English classes, we discuss what makes a credible source of information. Usually, I would teach that an elected official or government professional is a credible source of information. Why would my conservative friends not believe the president? Why should they look deeper into the actual facts? Many were hoodwinked with lies, with doctored videos of supposed fraud. And then they were dismayed and confused when the courts did not uphold Trump’s election challenges. Why? Because the lie was so pervasive they believed it, and then they became angry. Some conservatives were so angry, they planned and participated in an insurrection, thinking that they were protecting their country. Even some lawmakers got in on the action, referring to the march as the “Republicans’ 1776 moment” and referred to President-Elect Biden as an “illegitimate usurper.” What were they to think when their leaders engaged in this rhetoric? Some of them reading this continue to believe the lie and think that I am either lying or have been misled, despite the evidence, just because this evidence comes from news networks they think are fake (because, again, the president told them they were fake).
All this, because the President and some of our other leaders claimed that the election was somehow stolen.
Some may argue that the President never told the protesters to breach the Capitol walls. But consider that the name of the march — “Stop the Steal,” contains the action verb STOP, which implied that those who attended would somehow act to try to stop the certification of the electoral votes— which is exactly what they did. Words matter! It is so sad that it took an attempted insurrection to open our collective eyes to the destructive consequences that arise when government leaders lie unchallenged by their own party.
When Twitter shut down the president’s account, it did so to stop the perpetuation of lies on its platform “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.” Like the bakers who refused to sell a wedding cake to a gay couple because doing so violated their personal beliefs about marriage, the social media platforms shut down accounts that violated their terms of service (analogous to personal beliefs) about violent speech that had already led to violence and death. Twitter’s actions do not violate our right to free speech because they are not our government; users must agree to abide by rules, and the company reserves the right to refuse service to those who violate them. On January 6, rhetoric that *might* have been interpreted as hyperbole suddenly became threatening; thus, they began removing accounts.
The financial PACs who have announced they will no longer give money to politicians who voted to challenge the electoral college electors are doing so (in my opinion) to try to open the eyes of Republican leaders who continue to stand behind a man who inflamed a rebellion. The only way to get the attention of lawmakers (sadly) is often through the pocketbook. They want Republicans to stand up to the president and reassure the scores of people who have believed his lies that the election was legitimate, it was not stolen, and there will be a peaceful transfer of power. Or perhaps they do not want their name linked to people who voted to overturn electoral votes because that was the aim of the insurrectionists — in this case, it is a case of trying to cover their own liabilities.
The images of the insurrection are seared into my brain.
The noose. The Confederate battle flag being carried through the rotunda. The shouts to hang VP Pence. The coordinated battle planning to take the building. The people using an American flag to beat and kill a police officer. The urination on the floor. These actions were wrong in every sense of the word — yet what do we do when some of those who participated in the event did so thinking they were upholding the Constitution because of the president’s rhetoric? Where does the buck stop?
Of course, we have personal responsibility, but as human beings, we act on the facts as we know them. When the leader of the free world told us that “The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!” what were his followers to think and do? Many people I love stopped watching mainstream news and began to seek their news from places that reported conspiracy theories as if they were true, not realizing that putting their news consumption all in one basket curtailed their understanding of the truth.
I submit to them that there is still such a thing as truth. It is possible to cut through bias, find primary sources, and arrive at truth. I feel bad for my friends who believe President Trump’s continued lies, such as those that he said right before the attempted insurrection. He began with truth:
“Hundreds of thousands of American patriots are committed to the honesty of our elections and the integrity of our glorious Republic.
Yes. I would wager that all Americans of all political parties are committed to the honesty and integrity of our elections and Republic. But then he begins again with the lie that incited the insurrection:
All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by emboldened radical left Democrats, which is what they’re doing and stolen by the fake news media. That’s what they’ve done and what they’re doing. We will never give up. We will never concede, it doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved.
Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore and that’s what this is all about. To use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal.”
Take a look at the words he used at the very beginning of this speech: Election victory stolen by the radical left. Stolen by the fake news media. We will never concede. There’s theft involved. We will not take it anymore. We will stop the steal. With those words, President Trump incited the crowd to effectively storm the castle. He should be held accountable for those words.
I can’t speak for other liberals or Democrats out there. But as for me, I did not, as the President says, steal the election. I voted one vote, just as you did. I trust the court process that determined (over 50 times) that the election was secure and fair. If it had gone the other way, I would have accepted the results just as I have every time “my team” didn’t win. (By the way, “my team” has, through the years, been R, D, L, and I, and it has lost more than it has won, as I usually find myself on the losing side).
We need a national conversation about free speech as it pertains to elected officials. We cannot yell “Fire” in a crowded movie theater in the absence of smoke, yet it is seemingly ok for the President to yell “Stolen Election!” in the absence of evidence when the outcome does not favor him. Political speech, especially speech about elections, has enormous consequences.
For my Republican friends who are hurting and confused, I urge you to be willing to open yourself and consider whether we all may be unintentionally engaging in biased thinking.
Entertain in your mind just for a moment that maybe Trump was lying to you. Entertain in your mind for a moment the idea that the free press is not your enemy. Entertain for a moment the fact that courts struck down the election challenges. Is it logical to assume that every one of those judges — many of whom were appointed by Republicans — is somehow involved in a vast conspiracy to deny Trump the election? How could such a conspiracy involving hundreds of people be kept secret for so long? What kinds of real proof is there for the conspiracy theories you’ve embraced? Examine them. Judge them.
For my fellow Democrats, recognize that your cognitive bias is showing, too. In fact, cognitive bias happens to all of us — the real travesty is that most of us were never taught how to think, much less evaluate our own thinking. I hope you will learn from this travesty that YOUR words matter, too. We all should take from this the importance of the words we choose. I hope we can stop this “us vs. them” rhetoric and stand on our shared values. Do not shut out all Republicans or commit the fallacy that assumes that just because some Trump supporters engaged in an insurrection, ALL do. Just like not all BLM protesters were rioters, not all Trump supporters are domestic terrorists.
Finding the way forward, healing, holding those responsible accountable, and using our rhetoric to build up rather than tear down belongs to all of us. We are all Americans. We may not agree on the precise ways in which to get there, but the majority of us do want the best for our country.
The breach of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, was an armed insurrection against the rule of law. It was fomented by elected leaders who stood by while the leader of the free world cried wolf. It is high time we band together as Americans and demand an end to lies in political speech. As it turns out, words really do matter.
