Read on Twitter
Metaphors can distort our perception of the world, making good people appear bad and illegitimate actions appear legitimate. Much of Trump’s messaging was metaphorical. Washington was a ‘swamp’. African countries were ‘shitholes’. Immigrants were ‘snakes’ and women ‘bitches’.
Metaphors matter. Research has shown that changing nothing more than the metaphor in a piece of text can lead to massive shifts of opinion on issues ranging from whether people will support a policy, change their personal behaviour or even support a foreign war.
Politicians on all sides and in all countries need to be mindful of their language. Dehumanisation didn’t start with Trump and it won’t end with him. But hopefully we are all now a little more aware of where this language can lead, left unchecked.
I wrote a book about this if you’re interested... You Are Not Human - How Words Kill. You can see my launch speech where I explain why I wrote it here
