The Life Argotic

Trigger Warning: This post contains images of neo-Nazis and discusses topics of racial hate, murder, and violence.

You can tell a lot about the meaning of language based on the supporters of that language. For example, recently, Jason Aldean made a music video for one of his latest songs that caused quite a bit of controversy here in the US. On one side, fans of country music defended the song saying it was not racist in nature, not a dog-whistle, and simply shows how crime and disorderly conduct is treated different from the big city. One of the primary arguments that I have seen is that there is no mention of race within the entire song. On the other side, people claimed that the song is a dog-whistle against the BLM movement and that the video especially was racist in that they used footage from the courthouse where lynchings have occurred (also the stock footage of riots that were not even from the United States). Well… which one is it and who cares?

To me, one of the most telling aspects of racism that his embedded in the semiotics of art is in who supports/defends those images, videos, and songs, and how they do so. For example, here is an image of one person’s response to the responses to the video.

Just some casual xenophobia there regarding “foreign” sounding last names.

Another example of how the people who support you speaks volumes about what your words represent is in who supports you as a political candidate. Donald Trump was supported by David Duke, the leader of the KKK. Oh, and this guy.

Ron DeSantis is supported by these guys.

So, why does all this matter? Well, beyond the fact that this rhetoric pushes people to do heinous shit, that heinous piece of shit just murdered 3 people in Jacksonville. The defenders of the aforementioned rhetoric, songs, etc. are culpable. And to be honest, the conservative branch of our body politic sits right there with them. And people on the right are like “Oh NO!, I didn’t do that” Or “I didn’t cause that.” But then, why did DeSantis say, “you know we’re going to start slitting throats” when talking about the “deep state?” Or the guy in New Mexico who said, “the only good Democrat is a dead democrat.” The list goes on. The GOP is really leaning into Nazism, and it is literally killing people.

Sure, you can make the argument that who supports you as a political candidate is incidental, and you can’t choose who likes you. But that does mean that your values align in at least one way. Also, I have yet to see radicals come out to support Biden, even when he says something they agree with. One of my research interests is in the language of extremism and how it propagates into everyday language. I follow a lot of radical and reactionary pages. Neo-Nazis support DeSantis. Radical organizations say fuck Biden and the democrats every chance they get. In fact, they post a lot of mockery around the “vote blue no matter who” movement and its adherents.

The more I think about the shitstorm America is, the more I realize that we are all culpable, as a country. None of us are truly holding people accountable for their actions / inactions.