Below is my column in the Hill on the rise of rage politics. There was barely a respite from the rage rhetoric after the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the sniper attack on the ICE facility. Gov. Gavin Newsom is back this week to calling his opponents “fascists” while other Democratic politicians are back to calling ICE “fascists.”
Here is the column:
“Let your rage fuel you.” Those words from Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger captured what I have called “rage politics” in America.
Across the country, politicians and pundits are fueling rage, encouraging voters to embrace it. If you turn on the television, you would think that Darth Sidious had taken over: “Give in to your anger. With each passing moment, you grow stronger.”
I do not think for a second that Spanberger supports violence. She was sharing with voters the “sage advice” of her mother, which she said she has applied in her political career. However, the anger is all around us.
Recently, I debated Harvard Law Professor Michael Klarman, who declared, “I am very angry” and “I am enraged.” In denouncing ICE as “thugs” and saying Trump supporters are “fascists,” Klarman explained that the rage had a purpose: “to shake people out of their insomnia.”
Rage, however, comes at a cost in politics. I recently wrote a book about rage and free speech, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.” It discusses our history of rage politics and how it has led to violence and crackdowns. Rage gives people a license to say and do things that they would not otherwise say or do. It is addictive, it is contagious, and it is dangerous.
We are seeing the result of rage rhetoric all around us. That includes the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the sniper attack on ICE agents in Texas this week, in addition to violent protests around the country.
Rage allows you to deny the humanity of those you disagree with. Recently, two sisters were caught on video destroying a memorial to Kirk. Kerri and Kaylee Rollo were later arrested. However, they immediately opened a GoFundMe site to call for donations for “fighting fascism” and Kaylee wrote “my sibling was fired from their job.” Hundreds of donors gave the sisters thousands of dollars as a reward for the latest such attack on a Kirk memorial.
For many months, some of us have warned that violent rhetoric was crossing over into political violence. Democratic politicians have spent months ratcheting up the rhetoric against ICE agents, who have suffered more than a 1,000 percent increase in attacks, including the recent sniper attack.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), the day before that attack, signed a law that purports to bar ICE agents from wearing masks in California. He openly mocked them, asking, “What are you afraid of?“
Joshua Jahn answered that question the following day in Texas when he fired at ICE personnel, only to shoot three of their detainees.
Previously, Newsom had warned voters that Trump was building ICE into a personal army that might be used to suppress voting in the upcoming midterm elections. “Do you think ICE is not going to show up around voting and polling booths to chill participation?” he said.
Others added to the rage rhetoric by declaring the impending death of democracy and lashing out at ICE. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), who has used violent rhetoric in the past, declared that ICE agents were acting like “slave patrols” in hunting down immigrants in the streets.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) used a commencement address to denounce “Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets. They’re in unmarked vans, wearing masks, being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons… just grabbed up by masked agents, shoved into those vans, and disappeared.”
Others, like Boston Mayor Michele Wu, echoed the claims that ICE personnel are “Nazis” and called ICE Trump’s “secret police.”
The rage rhetoric (and claims of a fascist takeover) has been adopted by a wide range of Democratic politicians, often using the same catchphrases of an “authoritarian playbook.” In our debate, Professor Klarman warned that this was all “authoritarianism rooted in old-fashioned white supremacy.”
As discussed in my book, politicians and pundits have long sought to ride the wave of rage into power or influence. Rage is a powerful narcotic. The problem is when it becomes an addiction. There is always a certain percentage of the population that will believe such hyperbolic claims.
Those are the people who end up trying to kill jurists like Justice Brett Kavanaugh or politicians like Trump. It was also seen in the assassination of Democratic politicians earlier this year in Minnesota.
With the recent assassination and attacks on ICE, some are expressing regret. One of the most telling was Hillary Clinton on MSNBC, who said that we should “stop demonizing each other” while blaming “the right” for most of the hate. It was a curious call from a woman who called Trump supporters “deplorables” and suggested that they should collectively be forced into “deprogramming” as a cult. Just before the interview, Clinton had embraced the “fascism” mantra and, during the interview, she went right back to attacking Republicans.
A new poll shows that 71 percent view political violence as a serious problem, but the rage rhetoric continues unabated.
The perfunctory calls for lowering the temperature after the latest shooting are unlikely to last. Key figures in public life keep injecting rage directly into the veins of American politics. It is hard to go “cold turkey” in breaking that addiction, but you first have to want to do so. There is no indication that our rage-addicts are anywhere near a step-program for recovery. If history is any measure, this fever will only break when voters clearly reject the politics of rage.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of the bestselling book “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
Unearthed Biden note cards reveal he had bios, photo reminders on Hillary Clinton, Schumer BIDEN WAS TOAST!!!
When no one will accept your crazy ideas and harmful policies, at the bottom of your bag are the twin tools of lying and attacking your opponents. Neither of them work well, and you are doomed unless you wake up (PS: don’t wake up).
This post is pure gold for music lovers! Soundmap Guesser Spreadsheet
I am still patiently waiting for DOJ go after that fine NYC specialist in Florida real estate appraisals named Juan Merchan for pulling merchans.
These Dem dolts believe that this violence rhetoric is working for them because of the social media feedback loop they are in.
It’s not. Sane citizens from all sides abhor political violence and will vote it out. Dems are left only with an appeal to the crazys and US enemies.
But they want to believe it is working as they sink lower and lower and lower. They need to listen to Yoda.
https://youtu.be/KZGfGJvY2Dg?t=23
Correct about social media. The algorithms keep pushing content that validates the content the user is following or searching.
J.K. Rowling’s written response to Emma Watson was a masterpiece of candor.
If Emma really wants to dial back the rhetoric to save her own backside from a cause that is not aging well, she should pay it forward rather than pander to those she’s already burned at the stake. Half apologies are lame in the context of her ferocious and immature “witch hunting.”
The next time Emma gets an itch to lead a lynch mob, Emma might think of J.K. and the permanent damage that’s been done by her own larping as Pol Pot.
Words mean things. That means they have permanent consequences.
It’s a masterpiece!
Once again, you can’t find a single objective report without the usual leftist diatribe, as if they OWN morality: they are saying, Rowling is “trashing” Watson, for seemingly no reason or selfish and emotional reasons, but not for any logic. We are living in the upside-down.
Philadelphia plans to raise the Chinese flag in a bizarre celebration of communism!! WHAT???
Floyd – just watched the full Keri Smith episode you linked to earlier today. Fabulous. She’s well spoken, and speaks with authority having been in the Leftist cult for 20 years and then come out of it. She understands the cult, its mindset, and its tactics, which makes her a particularly valuable voice for sanity. Stay well, my friend.
Thx! So glad you liked it.
OT
The Gaza Flotilla continues to generate news with Spanish and, apparently Italian, warships guiding it across the sea.
Talk is leaning toward Israel stopping them and sending the people home, probably with more sandwiches.
I think better to give them formal notice not to enter Israeli waters but not stop them if they do. Then keep them in Gaza. No visit to Israel. No free flight home. No sandwich. Gaza. Among their Hamas friends they will surely be given a nice place in a tunnel. Hamas being what it is it will likely be in a target zone. They want Western martyrs. Good TV. Hotel Gaza. You can checkin but you can never leave. That will be the last stupid flotilla.
And non-stop Abba songs playing over their radios (which Israel has apparently already done)
Great! Maybe they can give them free pagers so they can stay in touch.
News in Times of Israel that the Israelis have proof that Hamas is linked to the financing of the seaborne odyssey and the ownership of the boat. But no one cares because it is full-on “we hate Jews, we hate Israel” media. The rise in antisemitism in Italy has been appalling considering the country was a Holocaust venue 80 plus years ago. The last Jews killed during the Holocaust in Italy were killed by Italian Blackshirts (real Fascists, not make-believe like the loony left calls conservatives) in Cuneo (Piedmonte) on April 25, 1945–now celebrated as liberation day–after being handed over to the RSI by Italian policemen. It sickens me to see this, but it confirms how prone to following propaganda are the Italians.
“If history is any measure, this fever will only break when voters clearly reject the politics of rage”. Huh? We get to vote on rage vs. no rage? If we could, it would pass 80-20. It’s media who are rewarding extreme conflict theatrics with airtime, and social media who are spreading completely unhinged, emotion-churning memes.
I’m finding JT’s column format, just citing the litany of breaches of law and order — and blaming it on rage — tiresome. We should be getting legal advice on how to tame a raging infospace that’s spinning out of control. He’s painted himself in a corner where any common-sense speech responsibility we could attach to speech freedom is encroaching on freedom.
For example, what does he say about the websites published to track individual ICE officers (leading to their attack in the field)? Speech “he doesn’t like”? Speech “he’d defend to the death”?
I’m finding commenters who never sign their name, preferring always to comment anonymously, tiresome.
I’m finding commenters who constantly whine about other commenters who never sign their name, while using a completely fake name themselves, to be increasingly tiresome and hypocritical.
I only read anonymous posts.
The posts from the regulars who use fake names are worthless.
I agree.
If you have something to say, then say it.
We don’t need to hear this constant whining from the people with fake names.
What you feel is irrelevant.
You are free to feel whatever you wish.
You are free to read whatever you wish.
You are free to lie about whatever you wish.
But the FACT is that when you post anonymously, you have no history, no credibility, you have earned no trust.
Posting Pseudonymous is less credible than posting under your actual name – though if you want mine you should be able to find it easily, others have.
But it does tie you to what you have said in the past – and others can judge your current post based on your past posts.
When you post anonymously – you have less credibility than someone who posts pseudonymously who is always wrong.
But you are “free to choose”.
Whine, whine, whine.
That’s all you ever do.
You and the others who use fake names are just a bunch of whining hypocrites, who think that your pathetic “holier than thou” attitude endows you with some form of “credibility”.
What a joke.
You constantly just make stuff up and post nonsensical diatribes that are incomprehensible and entirely devoid of relevance or meaning.
You and the others are just a tiresome bunch of old fools with no actual life, who spend all your time here congratulating each other on your stupid, pointless comments.
“Whine, whine, whine.”
What is the world is your definition of “whine” ?
Any argument you do not like ?
What has I said above that is incorrect ?
“You and the others who use fake names”
It is called a pseudonym, it is no different than those used by Madison, Hamilton and Jay in the federalist papers.
You do not have the same credibility with a pseudonym as you do using your real name.
But so long as you consistently use the same pseudonym over time you establish a reputation and a history and every post you make can be judged both on the curent post and youe past posts and established credibility.
You are absolutely free to post as anoymous – that is your right.
But that comes at a cost. No history, no record of credibility.
People can not even be sure that two consequtive anonymous posts are from the same person.
When you post anymously most people view your credibility as less than those who post under a pseudonym and are wrong most of the time.
Regardless you are free to choose how you post.
Despite calls from a few to bar anonymous posts – which Turley can do, and generally social media does not allow, Turley has chosen to allow anonymous posts.
That is his choice – but I support it.
This is not about attitude – it is about facts and reality and credibility
“You constantly just make stuff up ”
Then you are free to “Prove Me Wrong”
I am waiting.
“post nonsensical diatribes that are incomprehensible and entirely devoid of relevance or meaning.”
Ranting and ad hominem are not argument.
If my posts are wrong “Prove Me Wrong”
It should be easy if you are correct.
“You and the others are just a tiresome bunch of old fools with no actual life, who spend all your time here congratulating each other on your stupid, pointless comments.”
I run 3 separate businesses and have an interest and participation in a 4th tech startup that is working to fundimentally change the way computer memory works. I have been published twice by ACM,
I have a very very long CV that I am quite happy with.
Posting here is something I do in my spare time.
There are a fair number of typos in my posts – because I write fast HERE and I do not proof read.
But I can assure you that my published writing has been proof read many times.
As I noted before – while I post under a pseudonym – several people have been able to figure out my actual identity – particularly left wing nuts. I typically post as JbSay but when I post on my phone I use the initials for my real name.
Regardless, your the one fascinated by how I spend my time.
It would not matter all that much if I was a homeless guy posting from a Tent in LA,
What matters is that with respect to this website and a few others yoiu can judge the posts of JBSAY based on a long long history of other posts.
I do not personally give a schiff about your ranting and ad hominem.
Most of it is ranting I would not have allowed my children to get away with when they were 4.
That is how you come accross – like a 4yr old holding your breath until you turn blue because someone did not give you what you want.
That is how most of the left comes off most of the time.
That is a HUGE change that has occured during my lifetime.
Once Upon a time Mario Savio and the Berkley Free Speech movement were the extreme radical left in this country.
The past liberals were often wrong – though not nearly so badly as the left today.
But they were actual “antifascist” – not the clowns of the left today who despite their name are trtying to bring back facism rather than eliminate.
Further “liberals” were articulate and intelligent.
Your an embarrassment.
You should post as anonymous – so that in a decade you can hide from the nonsense that you have written.
What is my definition of whining???
The above is a perfect example of a litany of whining complaints.
If you don’t care what I have to say, then why do spend so much time and effort WHINING about what I say.
You embark on long convoluted, irrational diatribes that cannot possibly be the product of a normal healthy mind.
You are too stupid to realize how stupid you are.
There is something very seriously wrong with you.
I would add that successful people do not feel the need to brag about how successful they are.
Intelligent people do not feel the need to brag about how intelligent they are.
When you try to convince everyone about your intelligence and success in life you are simply revealing deep insecurities that your life actually has no meaning.
You try to compensate by spending time here posting absurdly long, incoherent diatribes.
“But the FACT is that when you” register a Gravatar™, that Gravatar™ (Avatar) is traceable back to your computer’s I.P./Mac address and SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) address (Gmail etc.).
That means computer savvy Commenters can back track your identity and location as they profile and record the demeanor of your comments. Essentially they want you to become their ‘Subject’ and catalog your online activities.
They didn’t tell you that did they? And there are some people on this Blog that try to bait your anger (provoke you) into some response that they can register you on their profile list (entrapment). They get paid by the Devil in brownie points, while ruining the experience for everyone.
We have all come to expect that they have only one soul purpose. That being complete Chaos, being here and all other aspects of your life. Pity such a waste of the time God has given you, the Devil will have but a tiny bit of mercy when you arrive, for doing his deeds.
At last, You were built for one thing in life, to sow Pure Evil.
Ah – ‘So-What’ do we care about a meaningless life.
https://gravatar.com/
Your Free Profile For The Web
Transform your email address into your digital passport – one avatar, one bio, social connections, and verified links.
““But the FACT is that when you” register a Gravatar™, that Gravatar™ (Avatar) is traceable back to your computer’s I.P./Mac address and SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) address (Gmail etc.).”
Is there someone here that assumed otherwise.
“That means computer savvy Commenters can back track your identity and location as they profile and record the demeanor of your comments. Essentially they want you to become their ‘Subject’ and catalog your online activities.”
First – do you really wish to come of as the Stassi ? Do you even know what the Stassi was ?
You care about “demeanor” ?
What kind of moron are you ?
I care about the quality of arguments, about facts, reason, logic.
Regardless, I do not need to do a deep dive into anyones Gravatar and IP address,
If they post under a name or pseudonym – the history of their comments tells who they are.
Your busy journaling the demeanor of posts on a Publc Forumn ?
You really are some kind of stassi idiot..
Why in the name of god would you do a massive amount of work to keep records of something that is ALREADY PUBLIC ?
Do you watch CSPAN and keep notes of each Senators remarks ? Even though CSPAN has the video and you can get a copy of the congressional record from the national archives ?
You want to try to trace my email ? In the past I have provided my jbsay email.
You want to know where my IP is located ? If you can not figure that out from my remarks your a moron.
And Why Do You CARE ?
Are you going to drive by my home and toss a molotov Cocktail ?
I have never understood the fascination of other posters here with trying to discover secrets about others who post here.
What you need to know is in their posts.
What you are entitled to know is in their posts.
Why are you wasting your time on this ?
If I cared about any of this – I would use a VPN, or post using Tor.
Can you show me the law that states this, or is this just an arbitrary unwritten law inside of your head?
Anonymous is too dim-witted to realize that screen names aid in conversation because we know the person we’re talking or listening to based on their screen name and prior interacxtions. I don’t GAF if you read anonymous or non-anonymous posts. But it takes a particularly low-IQ person not to be able to understand the difference between anonymous comments and those connected to a consistently-used screen name.
Yet more whining and complaining. That’s all you ever do.
You never have anything constructive to say.
All you do is whine and complain about the leftist libtards, and whine and complain about anonymous comments.
It takes a particularly low IQ person to not understand that putting a name to a whining diatribe does not magically endow the comment with “credibility”
It is still just whining and complaining from grumpy old men who have no life and nothing better to do.
Blah blah blah
omfk
I believe that comment would be the most constructive, erudite and insightful comment you have ever made.
Congratulations !!!
You may yet convince me that your comments are worth reading.
“Yet more whining and complaining. That’s all you ever do.
You never have anything constructive to say.”
OMFK told you TRUTH, that your remarks will carry more weight if they have an identity attached.
That is not whining, it is reality.
“All you do is whine and complain about the leftist libtards, and whine and complain about anonymous comments.”
No that is not all. Most of us spend very little time on that.
Regardless you have been told repeatedly you are free to post as anonymous – but when you do you have less credibility that someone with an identity that lies all the time.
“It takes a particularly low IQ person to not understand that putting a name to a whining diatribe does not magically endow the comment with “credibility””
Except that you are actually wrong.
Will a bank loan you money without knowing your name ?
Will anyone ?
The bank wants your name so they can go through your past financial history to decide if you are trustworthy.
Writing is no different.
It is not magic that endows posters with an identity with credibility, it is the record of their past posts.
If you do not grasp that – then perhaps your IQ is pretty low.
“It is still just whining and complaining from grumpy old men who have no life and nothing better to do.”
Because you say so ?
Most of the people you are calling “grumpy old men” – not only have actually accomplished things in their lives, but in many cases still are. I can not speak for everyone else, though I think that several other of the posters you attack are much the same – this is NOT our lives. It is not more than a small part of our lives.
Well, dox yourself oldmanfromkansas = youngwomaninChy-na
The appropriate response to speech that is legal but offensive – is to call it out.
That is what Turley is doing.
Nothing else is required.
Certainly government is not free to do anything.
“For example, what does he say about the websites published to track individual ICE officers (leading to their attack in the field)? Speech “he doesn’t like”? Speech “he’d defend to the death”?”
There is a line between free speech and incitement to violence. Tracking officers is still free speech.
It is offensive speech, bad speech. Should something happen that can be tied to it – those sites might have significant civil liability. But it is still speech.
You can get fired for your speech.
You can get shunned for your speech.
In a few instances you can get sued for your speech.
But the instances in which Government can act on your speech are extremely limited.
Right now Republicans are split on issues like speech.
Pretty close to universally they support free speech.
But a few are deeply offended by even the tiny hint of a whisp of a hint of a threat to free speech that Trump and his administration pose. They do not wish to ceed the moral high ground.
While a few others see what Trump is doing as a minor comupance that democrats deserve – that in fact they are never likely to learn the importance of free speech until they experience a small amount of what they did to others.
But there are very few republicans that really seek to supress free speech – except as a punishment to those who supressed the free speech of others.
When it comes to rage and violence, nothing characterizes it nearly as well as Planned Barrenhood and their supporters on the Left. They are the most vile, violent, murderous organization ever known to man, protected of course by Democrats. Now it appears they bilked Medicaid $1.8 Billion!
Let the Schumer Shutdown begin and with it hopefully the abortion of the Democrat Party.
Planned Parenthood could owe $1.8 billion in Medicaid fraud lawsuit
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/266787/planned-parenthood-could-owe-1-dollars-8-cents-billion-in-medicaid-fraud-lawsuit
Appeals court hears Medicaid fraud case that could cost Planned Parenthood $1.8 billion
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/appeals-court-hears-high-stakes-case-planned-parenthood-medicaid-funds
Estovir– I imagine you saw the undercover videos of Planned Parenthood employees talking about selling baby body parts and organs. Disgusting beyond measure. Hellish.
When an organization’s entire business model depends on the mass slaughter of the most innocent in society, the commission of large-scale fraud on the American people by that same organization somehow seems consistent.
There is massive evidence of Fraud in medicare.
There is a $2B case in I beleive Minesota right now, and a new multi-million dollar one that has just had arrests.
Govenrment is pi$$ poor at identifying and preventing fraud.
This is another reason for limiting govenment involvement in things that are just not its business.
Click your heels three times and say Solyandra and you will be back in kansas.
Medicare is unconstitutional. Congress may tax for debt, defense, and general welfare, that is, basic infrastructure such as police, fire, roads, water, post office, electricity, internet, etc.—not individual, specific, or particular welfare, charity, or favor. Medicare addresses only 18.7% of the population and is not general.
Shocking. Do you mean to say there is theft going on, John? Shocking 🤯
“CONEJITO MALO”
The American sport of football is now non-American African.
The American Super Bowl halftime show is now non-American Puerto Rican.
___________________________________________________________________________________
“[We gave you] a republic, if you can keep it.”
– Ben Franklin
_________________
You couldn’t.
Thanks, Abe.
Puerto Rico is an American protectorate and everyone there is a citizen of the United States of America.
So deprotectorate it.
Give it back to comrade Woodrow Wilson.
Establish a “free association” arrangement or grant Puerto Rico full independence and sovereign nation status.
That’s easier than renaming the Gulf of America!
$617.8 billion annually could be SAVED by transitioning Puerto Rico from a U.S. territory to an independent country.
Establish a “free association” arrangement or grant Puerto Rico full independence and sovereign nation status.
Independence: The U.S. Congress has the constitutional power to unilaterally grant Puerto Rico its independence, just as it did with the Philippines in 1946. It is a politically complex and sensitive issue, but not unprecedented.
Sovereignty in free association: In this option, Puerto Rico would become a sovereign nation with a negotiated pact of free association with the U.S. The terms of the association would be detailed in a treaty and could cover agreements on defense, trade, and financial assistance. This is the arrangement the U.S. has with Palau, Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands.
President Donald Trump must consider making Puerto Rico an independent nation ASAP.
“F***ing ICE could be outside my concert.”
“And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”
“Look, those motherf——s are in these cars, RAV-4s.”
“I’m never performing in the U.S. again.”
– Conejito Malo
Oh darn.
X
“Jay-Z weighs in on his choice to stamp Bad Bunny as the performer at the 2026 Super Bowl.”
“We are honored to have him on the world’s biggest stage.”
“Roc Nation announced…the halftime show at Super Bowl LX.”
– XXL
Another football half time from hell? Shocking. Gyrating maggots this year?
Jonathan; breaking news: As our resident Democrat trolls attack professor Turley while claiming Trump is a dictator attacking free speech… The first of the lawsuits is finished after Google/YouTube confessed while testifying under oath that they censored and removed Republicans, doctors, news organizations on the orders/threats that came from the Biden White House.
YouTube agrees to pay $24 million settlement in Trump lawsuit over suspension
https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/youtube-agrees-pay-24-million-settlement-trump-lawsuit-over-suspension
All while our resident Marxist trolls who didn’t have problems with a dictator telling social media which Republican politicians, news media, doctors, etc they were to censor, kick off their platforms, etc. wail their allegations about Trump.
What are the chances Trump is not the only one who will now sue after Zuckerburg/Facebook, Google/YouTube confessed under oath that they were censoring and kicking off Republican politicians, journalists, doctors, news outlets on the orders/threats of Biden and the capos who did his dirty work?