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The Dehumanizing Language from Trump’s Speech Nobody’s Talking About
“You’re the real people,” he said, just before his fans stormed the U.S. Capitol.
“But just remember this, you’re stronger, you’re smarter. You’ve got more going than anybody and they try and demean everybody having to do with us and you’re the real people. You’re the people that built this nation.”
That’s a snippet from Donald Trump’s Insurrection Day speech that I haven’t seen others talking about. I mean, yeah, he says harmful stuff all the time, including lots of other impeachable stuff in that particular January 6 speech outside the U.S. Capitol, so it’s hard to let any one line stand out.
“You’re the real people.”
But to me, “You’re the real people” is particularly terrifying, dehumanizing language. When we cease to see others as “real” and deserving of life, horrific things can happen. Just before they stormed the Capitol building, Trump told the mostly white mob they were victims, and the ones “demean”ing them were inhuman, not “real people.”
Also, take note of, “You’re the people who built this nation,” said to a crowd of overwhelmingly white people, in a nation built with slave labor on stolen land. That’s the crypto-racism we’ve come to expect…
