The Thing About Weapons
They can be used by anyone.
They have no loyalty or rules. There’s no off-switch for the reprehensible or the stupid.
The same applies for weaponized words. Words that encourage violence against another group, words that tell you that your very life depends on winning are often applied in frightful ways. When you create a weapon, you really can’t control it. It is just a thing that is used to hurt.
Violence is the last language of the weak and vulnerable.
I am reminded that Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by one of his young countrymen. Rabin had been a successful leader in the Israeli Defense Forces who won re-election on the basis of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process before his killing. Rabin’s bone fides as a military leader lent credibility to the peace process with the Palestinians. His killer was a radical right-winger who opposed and compromise regarding land, and saw the Oslo Accords as h…
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