In a speech that touched on America’s darkest days and most inspirational leaders, Ukraine’s embattled president made a powerful call for stronger action on Russia.
Kwame Nkrumah’s vision still resonates with Ghanaians.
JB Dodane/Wikimedia Commons
Nkrumah’s rhetorical vision used the politics of the crowd to build a postcolonial community outside of the conscripts of colonialism.
America’s political leaders rushed the nation into war just weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, just like ancient Greeks and Romans did in response to similar traumatic events.
David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images
Ancient Athenians and Romans also let shared mass tragedies propel justifications for going to war – even when it wasn’t clear what that violence would solve.
Keir Starmer delivers a speech virtually.
Alamy/PA
Empty chambers and cancelled conferences deny the public a vital feedback loop when politicians are presenting their ideas.
Trump addresses a crowd in Dalton, Georgia, on Jan. 4, the night before the state’s U.S. Senate runoff.
Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images
The president’s language sounded less presidential and more inflammatory in the weeks leading up to the riots.
Surrounded by army cadets, U.S. President Donald Trump watches the first half of the 121st Army-Navy Football Game at the United States Military Academy in New York City on Dec. 12, 2020.
(Shutterstock)
The messianic language used in relationship to Donald Trump and QAnon conspiracy theories have their roots in Christian expectations of messianic deliverance.
With the American flag reflected in the teleprompter, President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Duluth International Airport on Sept. 30, 2020, in Duluth, Minn.
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Because dramatic tension fuels attention, Trump’s words work to generate tension, anxiety and conflict. We need to react with civility, care and calm to undo the cycle of attention and persuasion.
Will either – or both – of these men use humor or insults in their first presidential debate?
AP Photo
A politician who wields a comeback with skill can use it as both a bludgeon and a shield, damaging the opponent without hurting their own popularity with voters.
Both Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Donald Trump have been accused of using hate speech.
AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi
My research shows that when politicians use hate speech, it’s not just empty rhetoric or political theater: Domestic terrorism increases, in the US and in other countries.
Bethany Albertson, The University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts
Dog whistles constitute coded language that only some voters can hear. But Trump does not hide his bigotry when talking about Mexican ‘rapists,’ the ‘China virus’ and ‘law and order.’
Tallies are displayed as House members vote on a resolution on impeachment procedure on Oct. 31, 2019.
AP/Andrew Harnik
Democrats and Republicans are speaking about impeachment with dramatically different language. The winner of this frame war will succeed in shaping how Americans understand the impeachment inquiry.
It’s a linguistic battlefield out there.
Complot/Shutterstock.com
Each spin of the news cycle hits us with another ‘bombshell,’ while everything from free speech to race has been ‘weaponized.’ What’s the effect of being relentlessly exposed to metaphors of war?
President Trump told four Democratic Congresswomen of color to ‘go back’ to the ‘corrupt’ countries they came from.
AP/Carolyn Kaster
John M. Murphy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Difficult to pronounce, synecdoche is the form of rhetoric used by President Trump when he told four Democratic congresswomen of color to “go back” to the “corrupt” countries they came from.
A protester is arrested by Capitol Hill Police during the Kavanaugh nomination.
AP/Alex Brandon
A polarized electorate is divided into tribal camps that demonize each other. That’s the setting for the upcoming midterm elections. If the US continues down this path, democracy will suffer.
The quiet consumption of news can sustain a polarized political environment.
Lightspring
In Kenneth Burke’s ‘The War of Words,’ the late rhetorical theorist picks apart the little ways news articles can subtly influence readers – and harden divisions.
After the Manafort and Cohen news dropped, many wondered how Trump would respond. By the following morning, a messaging strategy seemed to coalesce.
Nick Lehr/The Conversation via Reuters and AP Photo
Aristotle coined the term “enthymeme” to refer to arguments, words and ideas that are broadly accepted among the people of a nation. So what happens when enthymemes start to disappear?
Coal miner photographed on the job near Richlands, Virginia, in 1974.
Jack Corn/Environmental Protection Agency