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Character Assassination
It’s ugly. No one will deny the intensity and revolting events that have taken place since the election of Donald Trump. In one sense, destroying another’s reputation is not new; but the collaboration in order to take down the President and his administration is a process I’ve not seen in my lifetime. It’s character assassination. I’d like to define that term, provide a few examples of the ways it’s been practiced historically, and how is different in these times.
Character assassination is slandering a person with the intention of destroying public confidence in that person. Further, I believe it is an evil act. Dennis Prager explains that these actions actually violate the Ten Commandments, specifically the Eighth Commandment, “Do not steal.” After explaining how stealing a person (enslaving) is prohibited, as is taking away a person’s property, he talks about the most egregious type of stealing:
Stealing a person’s good name—whether through libel or slander or gossip—is a particularly destructive form of theft. Because unlike money or property, once a person’s good name has been stolen, it can almost never be fully restored.
There are many methods for assassinating peoples’ character:
Discredit them, showing their arguments and decisions are weak and they are incapable in their work.
Use defamation, damaging the good reputation and name of others.
Demonize them, turning them into bad people that everyone hates, such that anything they do will be considered bad.
Dehumanize them, treating them as a ‘thing’ and framing them as non-human with negligible values.
I believe we have seen all of these tactics widely used against Donald Trump. If we are to approach this subject honestly, we also have to look at the attacks that have been made by the right against Trump’s opponents. If we are relying on facts, without the strategies listed above, and refraining from hyperbole as much as we possibly can, we may or may not be assassinating a person’s character.
There are countless examples of character assassination in our history. Abraham Lincoln may have sustained the worst verbal and written onslaughts. The media frequently called him an ape, a baboon, a monster, a Negro, an idiot, and a buffoon. His actual performance allows us today to see his greatness and how disgusting these attacks were. So the passing of time can eventually mend the damage of one’s reputation.
Several differences set our times apart from past actions of character assassination. One is the role of the media. The media have demonstrated an overwhelming left slant for many years; they have always denied this label, trying to show their unbiased credentials. Today, the media blatantly, almost proudly, flaunt their liberal bias and declare their willingness to distort the truth. Attacking President Trump by demonizing and discrediting him in any way becomes a badge of honor. I think it is fair to say that they want to destroy him. There are those who believe that the media, not the Left or the Democrat party, are driving the rhetoric about Trump.
The far left and the Democratic Party also have no qualms about destroying Trump. The lies, distortions and demonizing that they have attached to Trump are too numerous to mention here. In spite of actions and proof to the contrary, his mental and physical health have been questioned; in spite of his support of the middle class and tax breaks, they deny these benefits have gone to the American people; in spite of his promise to de-regulate government and trying to eliminate Obamacare, he has been accused of essentially calling for death sentences for the American people. The media, of course, publicize these attacks.
Organizations that have been celebrated for their ethics and non-partisan work until now, appear to be working with the media and the Democrats. The FBI, and potentially the DOJ, have joined the fray.
The difference in these times for those engaging in character assassination is the level of coordination and complicity by the media, the Left and the Democrat Party, and the intelligence community.
Maybe we should have seen these extreme efforts coming for a long time. Or maybe it just needed a controversial, obnoxious, non-politically correct presidential nominee, now President, to strip off the masks of greed, hatred, and evil.
I think a key reason that the groundwork was laid for these attacks is the decay of the moral fiber of this country. Secularism and its rejection of Judeo-Christian values show how easily we carry out our desire for revenge, for winning, for destruction and how incapable we have become of demonstrating respect and compassion.
I don’t mean to suggest that people shouldn’t be subject to criticism; that’s not the point. We do, however, need to look at our motives, at the tone of our language, the amount of facts vs. hyperbole, and whether we are maintaining our own integrity when we write or speak.
My final message is this: I have found myself disparaging people in ways that are truly hateful and hyperbolic. It has become easier over time, as I act out my rage against forces that I can’t control. I want a scapegoat, someone to blame, to hold accountable. But if I’m not careful, I will turn into the very people and institutions I despise.
I need to be stronger. I need to be more conscious. I need to be true to my beliefs and values. I am the one who wants and expects to be held to a higher standard.
What about you?
Published in Culture
Government is how we steal from each other.
So true. Someone wrote on another post that the State of Florida was going to pay for tearing down the school building in Parkland and building a new one. I had to remind him that that was my money!
Discretionary central banking, government actuarial science, and non-public goods are theft from each other that we vote on. DISCUSS!
Also, BE ***NICE*** ABOUT IT!
Susan Quinn: “Maybe we should have seen these extreme efforts coming for a long time. Or maybe it just needed a controversial, obnoxious, non-politically correct presidential nominee, now President, to strip off the masks of greed, hatred, and evil.”
Yeah, right on the button!
I wonder if the root of this character assassination is hatred of the country. I don’t see much patriotism coming from the left. A Republican President is a symbol of the country’s values. The left doesn’t share those values. I refer to the founding principles of America. Trump, for all his faults, is a patriot. He loves his country.
You attribute the decline in decency to decay of moral fiber, loss of Judeo Christian values and secularism. True, but there’s another dimension here. Can’t exactly put my finger on it, but, I think, it’s connected to communist influences. I don’t mean to get conspiratorial, but I can’t help myself. Communism never went away. Maybe it slept for awhile, but it’s various iterations were always present. Call is socialism, resistance, or some other fig leaf designation, it’s still the same old collectivism.
Clearly the Sanders, Warren, Ellison faction embrace that political philosophy. Their influence and beliefs extend to many others in the party. Beyond that, the liberal herd follows the leader. This translates into hate your own country. There is no room in this movement for decency. Anything to advance the cause. The argument that the left is only critical of aspects of our democracy and want to improve the system, is cover for the real purpose – to destroy our democracy.
There we have it. Trump can’t be the devil because he couldn’t quote the Bible.
I voted for Trump, and am pretty happy with the job he’s done so far, but I’m not sure he has a character to destroy.
As far as I can tell Trump has no discernable character to assassinate.
I’ve only seen one good article about him likely having narcissistic personality disorder, but it was pretty compelling.
You are missing my point, Kevin. I think the world of Susan. She knows that. I wish we shared the same building. We could exercise together, share a cup of coffee every morning. It would be great.
But her Post hardly mentioned Trump’s deficiencies are a human being. If you are going to write a post, which rightly decries character assassination – a denunciation I totally share, and wish would happen more often – it seems to me that to leave out the one man who won the nomination, and, arguably, the Presidency, by the slandering of others’ character, is a real missed optuninity. Even if it was in the past, he never owned up to it; never apologized for it. And he does it still today. You know it; and she knows it.
To me, it doesn’t take away from my admiration for Susan to point this out. I hope she knows that.
So true. We have this local lib who writes a lot of guest editorials for the paper. He slings Bible quotes around like confetti to support the liberal position. The quotes are always out of context due to cherry-picking. Fortunately, there are tons of locals (including myself) who write rebuttal letters. So far, the paper prints them.
I don’t see any. There used to be some, but it’s gone.
Mikescapes (View Comment):
A Republican President is a symbol of the country’s values.
And a Democrat President is a symbol of the left’s values – hatred of this country and it’s values and traditions, hatred of faith (other than Islam and Secular Humanism), and hatred of anyone who thinks differently from, or objects to, them.
I agree with you, @Mikescapes. And I believe that the desire for the US to be a socialist country, and the Left’s inability to make that change, is infuriating to them. In spite of all the failures of communism and the limited successes of socialism, the Left perpetuates the myth that socialism would be best for this country. As long as most of us disagree, they will continue to hate us.
Look at my comments #62 and #63 here.
I’d like to say that I’m glad that most of you who have read the comments snarking at Trump have ignored them for the most part. They are pot shots, but this is a blog and people are welcome to say those things. For those of you who say that Trump has no character to assassinate, that’s a pot shot, not an insightful or well-rounded view of the man. I don’t like a lot of things that he has done–a lot. But I won’t say the man has no character.
Slander is effective, VDH notes that an early politician said that his opponent’s mother ran a brothel from a cemetery, yikes, is that rigor mortis or are you glad to see me? As Stad notes Romney and Palin were successfully labeled, also think of Dan Quayle. Whether it is pushing granny off the cliff or killing children, or being bigots, Republicans are on the receiving end of a slander that labels us as stupid or heartless or bigoted, and this has been the case for decades.
After Reagan’s speech to the National Association of Evangelicals called the “evil empire” speech (even though the words evil empire did not come until some 3000 words into the speech)http://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/reagan-evil-empire-speech-text/, Reagan was called a religious bigot by Richard Cohen of Washington Post. Anthony Lewis of the New York Times said that Reagan applied “a simplistic theology… and for a President to attack those who disagree with his politics as ungodly is terribly dangerous”, historian Henry Steele Commager said, “It was the worst presidential speech in American history, and I’ve read them all”. And lovable Tip O’Neill at the Democratic National Convention from the podium said, “The evil is in the White House at the present time. And that evil is a man who has no care and no concern for the working class of America and future generations of Americans…He’s cold. He’s mean. He’s got ice water for blood.” Edmund Morris, biographer, said that Europeans thought Reagan was a “binary-minded simpleton”. The above information is from “God and Ronald Reagan” by Paul Kengor and reminds us that the style of criticism Republicans face has not changed just because we have Trump as our President. Slander will not be defeated by appeals to reason or by good arguments, and never has been.
Morning Mikescape,
I think you are exactly correct. I think it is part of the fatal flaw in the West, that elements always emerge which question the basic worth of the foundations of the Western culture, and believe that the average citizens are too stupid to govern themselves. Recall in the 30’s there was a debate at the Oxford Union where the winning position was that “I will not give my life for God or country”. These groups believe that they are among the “anointed” who are above common moral norms and know the true moral values. They detest the shop keeper, church goer, essentially the average Joe who is thought to be beneath them.
The problems remain, how do we minimize the corrosive force of the elite who not only mock the average Joes but work to take governing power from the citizens and try to collect power for themselves. Also how do we remove the power of slander especially because the media is always leftist.
Slander is how we commandeer the excessively centralized government so we can steal from each other.
How did it come to this?
I’m getting other feedback from people aside from @georgetownsend that I should have listed Trump’s assassination of others’ characters. I assumed that was common knowledge. I’ve said I think his doing it is reprehensible. Given the topic of this OP, addressing all of us and how we behave, I didn’t think it was necessary. I still haven’t gotten an answer to my question. Does Trump’s atrocious behavior justify our continuing to attack his character. Isn’t that old news by now? I already said in the OP that I don’t like him or his behavior. Why was I required, according to some of you, to list all his bad actions? Please tell me why that was relevant in determining how we all should act.
Finally, here’ a challenge for you: can you list any positive character traits of Trump? If you can’t, or refuse to, I would suggest that you are less than fair in assessing the man.
Good Morning, Susan!
I will take you up on your challenge. I think there are very few people, about whom you can’t say anything good. The only exception I would take note of are people who commit mass murder. Then, whatever good they may have done in the lives is completely washed away, with this act of complete surrender to base evil.
The Left says these kinds of things about Trump. They are, of course, incapable of deep thought, in this or most other things, and ought to be ashamed.
So here are a few things, off the top of my head…
I offer these to meet your challenge. I still don’t like the man, and think he is not good for my country.
Parenthetically…. I have a dear friend, who is on the Left. I’ve known her for over 30 years. We could argue all day, if she would let me get a word in edgewise. But I love her, because of her basic goodness. So I hope you understand that, even though our perceptions are very different, and I do not take back of any of my disappointments with your piece, you will always be my prayers. To Life, my friend!
Agreed. Although in your #2 point above, you had to qualify it. Just sayin’ . . .
I’m late to the thread, but its absence was conspicuous.
An acknowledgement to the effect of “Of course, the president is hardly above unjustly attacking others’ characters, and he’s wrong when he does it. Regardless …”
Sure:
The latter is one of my personal favorites! ;-)
Thanks, Tom!
Yes I did! His definition and mine are not the same. :-)
Have a good day, Susan!
Because we have to do a ritual verbal defense just as the left wants us too. Shows you how much they have effected us. Funny how this standard does not seem to apply to attacking Trump supporters. (Well, Trump supporters have a point about how globalism has hurt them, however I don’t agree with their solutions). Nope, we just get called cultists.
This always only works one way. The Left is not held to the standard when they attack America to at least open with “well, of course I love America” or even “I Think this is where the power comes from for what we want to do”.
I do not thing Susan was wrong, and I think bringing it up is a way to counter her very true argument, Alinsky style. To jump on it is to carry water for them.
Again, Ted Cruz was able to get over it. I wonder why so many on the right are not?
Trumps atrocious behavior is what imputes his character, simply pointing it out isn’t unfair or out of bounds. I also fail to see how bring it up is unfair? Is it also unfair to constantly bring up Clinton’s (pick one) poor life choices, aren’t those old news too? The reason they keep getting brought up constantly is because we don’t think there was a just reckoning, because like the Clintons Trump is an oily eel, and his fans are capable of infinite levels of justification and blind eye turning.
See how it works? DOn’t talk about anyone else, just Trump. Carry water for the Left.
The Left is the enemy, not Trump. They want to wipe out our Freedom and Liberty. not Trump.
You are fighting for the enemy.
Trump has been at effect of the rough nd tumble world of media attacks and personal swipes, comedy roasts, and tabloid celebrity scuttlebutt for decades before he got into politics. I invite everyone to watch Trump getting roasted by some of the most vile insult comics ever assembled.
He can take it and he doesn’t take it seriously or personally. I believe he’s simply inured to it. When someone claims he’s “thin skinned” it’s a strong indication they are completely mistaken about most things Trumpian.
But there is a certain quality to his attacks that stops short of impugning a persons moral character. He hasn’t called people racists, or diagnosed his opponents as phobes, or haters or malevolent. These kind of attacks are so common we don’t even see them as insults anymore!
He has made disparaging comments about people’s popularity, success and appearances. On the latter, I give him some slack because he’s been getting attacked for his appearance – his hair mostly – continually and no one seems to mind.
Big boys don’t cry. But what about big girls?
It’s taboo to attack someone’s appearance in public, but it seems you can call their very soul into question by charging them with racism, bigotry, hatefulness, and make a blanket statement regarding their worth as a human being and it’s acceptable behavior. I can’t think of a time when Trump stooped that low. But everyone else thinks that because he’s violated these social norms Trump is a free target to vent their spleen onto.
To me, insults applying to someone’s general character and personal motivations are much more despicable than calling someone “little “ or “low energy” or even saying “look at that face”.
I bet if you polled a thousand women they’d rather be called racist than fat by a large margin ( regardless of weight or bigotry-level) And men generally have insecurities about their hair. Whether this reveals how low we have gone or how meaningless the charges have become due to overuse I’ll leave for another debate.
(So far Trump hasn’t called any females “fat” – maybe he’s saving that for Oprah in 2020)
These are social taboos he’s effectively violated, causing all the outrage. A scold would say, “this is how children insult each other and it’s not acceptable!” These are the same people who call anyone who doesn’t agree with them racists and phobics, claiming nefarious motivations and readily depict their opponents as nazis and murderers. They effectively keep their children from engaging in schoolyard taunts and all this effort is expended to prevent bullying yet adults overtly bully and taunt other adults mercilessly in public constantly and revel in smug satisfaction! It’s madness!
Then these same people define their own virtue by means of who and how much they hate.
If wrote a post arguing against WWII analogies regarding the president, but failed to mention … the contributions of a certain aeronautical engineer, that would be … weird, right?
As I’ve said before, we would all benefit from not lingering on pasts insult that’ve been thrown at us.
Liking the president more than I do does not make one a cultist.
Disliking the president more than you do does not make one a coward.