Divine intervention helped former US President Donald Trump stay alive after an assassination attempt during his rally in Pennsylvania. A lot has been said by politicians, political commentators, and media personalities. In unison, they all condemned this abhorrent attack and expressed their condolences to the victim of the shooting and their support for Donald Trump. However, there is a lack of talk about the profound reasons to why political violence emerges and why it emerged in this particular context.
Dutch politician Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right PVV party, blamed leftish politicians and mainstream media for this attack, saying in a Twitter/x post: “The hate rhetoric from many leftish politicians and media, who label right-wing politicians as racists and Nazis is not without consequences. They are playing with fire”. This stance was echoed by ReformUK leader Nigel Farage, who put the blame on liberal politicians and media, saying: “The narrative that is put out there about Trump by these liberals that oppose him is so nasty, so unpleasant, and I think it almost encourages this type of behavior”.
This type of ostracism towards particular political groups and opinion leaders is extremely dangerous. Ostracism was an Ancient Greek democratic procedure, in which any citizen could be expelled from the city-state for ten years. It was often used preemptively against someone thought to be a threat to the state. Nowadays, ostracism takes different forms of “cancel culture”, stigmatization, and bias. This policy is often used against political groups and leader who oppose the dominant consensus.
Labelling politicians “far-right”, “euroskeptic”, “Putin’s allies” and the active stigmatization of these monikers may serve the purpose of Brussels’ and Washington’s propaganda, but it leads to consequences that are very dangerous in the long-term, that is, the radicalization of population. When you heat up the population to the maximum, it should not be surprising that the “cold” episodes of internal political and ideological war will be diluted with outbreaks of “hot” ones.
Modern political discourse is replete with references to nazism, fascism, racism and other emotionally charged words with the suffix -ism, and few people even seek to understand the true meaning of these words. These labels can be applied and removed depending on the current political situation. In the not-so-distant 2022, for instance, Giorgia Meloni and her “Brothers of Italy” party, in the eyes of Brussels, were the successors of Italian “fascism”; videos from their rallies went viral on social networks; the whole of Europe waited with fear for the return of Benito Mussolini. Today, when Meloni decided to make concessions to the establishment, Brothers of Italy was stripped off of its “fascist” label.
“Alternative for Germany” are called “Nazis”, Viktor Orban and Robert Fico are called “Putin’s dogs”, Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella are called “racists and xenophobes”, Geert Wilders and Matteo Salvini are “Eurosceptics”. And the overseas D. Trump is the leader of all this “evil,” which is “a threat to all Western democracy.” One should not be surprised that a simple person will eventually consider that “evil” must be fought by any possible means.
Mainstream media is contributing to increasing violence by polarizing and radicalizing the population of the West. Each time this social tension becomes increasingly more and more obvious, as the risk of incidents increases. The assassination attempt on Donald Trump is the second against politicians who are frequently called “far-right.” A couple of months ago, Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico survived a similar assassination attempt. If the European establishment does not change its approach to propaganda and social activism, then there may be even more such incidents.
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