Authoritarianism can only succeed by brutally killing any and all dissent.
As such, language has become increasingly significant in the wake of the current administration’s unconstitutional repression of our rights and liberties. Distorting language is fundamental for the suppression of dissent and implementing authoritarianism.
This is crystal clear when President Trump calls protest ‘illegal’.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
First Amendment to the US Constitution
This is some of the language being used against those of us who support the Palestinian people:
- terrorists
- terror supporters
- antisemitic
- Hamas sympathizers
- pro-Hamas
- pro-jihadist
- illegal encampments
- illegal protest
- infested with radicalism
- agitators
- anti-Israel
- radical
- extremist
- hate our country
I agree with a recent article that said those on either side of this issue talk past each other. The assault on truth and rise of disinformation has been extremely successful. You can’t have a conversation as long as one side both outright rejects what you have to say and has no intention of being open to modifying their position. And won’t provide any reasonable evidence to explain their position.
Someone can call me a pro-Hamas sympathizer, as the Trump administration does. Can you imagine a Quaker lifetime peace and justice activist supporting anything to do with terrorism? I counted on First Amendment rights many times. I knew the country of the 1960’s would protect our anti-war efforts. I was expressing my faith in our legal system when I purposely committed an act of civil disobedience when I resisted the Selective Service System, knowing that was a federal crime. A price I was willing to pay because I believed in the possibility of positive change. It’s difficult to feel that way today.
Who doesn’t want Hamas (and Israel) to stop the killing? But because there is no longer an agreement on what is true, people can make accusations like “pro-Hamas” without any proof and will deflect any attempt to challenge their positions. They will not accept anything different. We can no longer have conversations when one (or both) side isn’t open to a different point of view.
Unbelievably, we are now at the point where anyone who says or does anything to support the Palestinian people is by definition “pro-Hamas” and undeserving any civil liberties or protections.
The most recent and concerning example of expanding authoritarianism has been the arrest and attempted deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, an American green card holder and permanent US citizen.
Condemning the Trump administration and immigration officials for detaining and imprisoning Mahmoud Khalil over his involvement in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University last year, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez issued a warning for those who believe the arrest is an isolated incident rather than an indication of the president’s approach to dissenters.
“If the federal government can disappear a legal U.S. permanent resident without reason or warrant, then they can disappear U.S. citizens too,” said the New York Democrat. “Anyone—left, right, or center—who has highlighted the importance of constitutional rights and free speech should be sounding the alarm now.”
…
New York City Council member Chi Ossé said that “every Democratic politician and American with a conscience” should speak out against Khalil’s detention.
“They’re not doing this despite his rights,” said Ossé. “They’re doing this because of his rights—they’re violating the Constitution on purpose, testing the fragile system to see what they can get away with… If the feds can snatch up an American green card holder for speech they don’t like and get away with it, they won’t stop here. They’ll be able to erase the right to speech they don’t agree with and kidnap anyone who dares resist.”
‘Free Mahmoud Khalil’: Progressives Demand Release of ‘Disappeared’ Columbia Grad by Julia Conley, Common Dreams, Mar 10, 2025
Trump’s executive order lays bare something we already knew: Immigration status is an effective cudgel against the people and protesters who challenge an institution’s bottom line. Whether exercising their First Amendment right to protest or engaging in unionization activities protected by federal labor law, international students have long been vulnerable to the whims of university leaders who seek to use their visas as leverage over them.
Trump Threatened to Revoke Visas of Students Who Dissent. Where’s the Pushback? Universities that decried Trump’s “Muslim ban” in 2017 are largely silent now as Trump bullies international students. By Schuyler Mitchell, Truthout, February 26, 2025
George Orwell
George Orwell’s writings, particularly his essays and novels, offer a compelling critique of authoritarianism and its relationship with language. His most famous work, 1984, serves as a chilling exploration of how totalitarian regimes manipulate language to control thought and suppress dissent.
Nineteen Eighty-four, novel by English author George Orwell published in 1949 as a warning against totalitarianism. The novel’s chilling dystopia made a deep impression on readers, and Orwell’s ideas entered mainstream culture in a way achieved by very few books. The book’s title and many of its concepts, such as Big Brother and the Thought Police, are instantly recognized and understood, often as bywords for modern social and political abuses.
Brittanica, Nineteen Eight-four
One language concept in 1984 is newspeak.
newspeak, propagandistic language that is characterized by euphemism, circumlocution, and the inversion of customary meanings. The term was coined by George Orwell in his novel Nineteen Eighty-four (1949). Newspeak, “designed to diminish the range of thought,” was the language preferred by Big Brother’s pervasive enforcers.
Types of newspeak in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-four include the elimination of certain words or the removal of unorthodox meanings from certain words; the substitution of one word for another (e.g., uncold instead of warm and ungood instead of bad); the interchangeability of the parts of speech, such that any word in the language could be used as either noun, verb, adjective, or adverb (e.g., the word cut no longer existed, and the term knife acted as both noun and verb, as in the sentence “She knifed the bread”); and the creation of words for political purposes (e.g., goodthink, meaning “orthodoxy” or “to think in an orthodox manner”).
Another term Orwell uses in Nineteen Eighty-four is doublethink. “Doublethink” refers to the ability to hold two contradictory beliefs at the same time and accept both as true. It highlights the psychological manipulation authoritarian regimes employ, often using language to obscure or distort reality.
Antisemitism
Antisemitism is the language used by Israeli officials and their supporters to deflect criticism of themselves, and use the term to justify unjust and usually illegal actions against Palestinian supporters and institiutions, primarily universities.
Antisemitism involves prejudice or hostility toward Jewish people as a group. Those of us who want the killing of Palestinian children, women and men to stop are not hostile toward Jewish people. It is the Israeli government under Netanyahu that is committing the genocide against Palestinians. Most Israelis are Jewish, but their religion has nothing to do with our antiwar efforts.
Instead, they report a rise in antisemitism, the code word for more government bullying, censorship, and intimidation; for forced desensitization and dehumanization on a civilizational scale, in support of open genocide.
Alon Mizrahi, The Mizrahi Perspective, Feb 24, 2025
The Department of Education is investigating antisemitism allegations at five universities after the president’s executive order last week requiring federal agencies to take more action against antisemitism.
The investigation was opened under the department’s Office of Civil Rights for alleged Title VI violations that protects students from discrimination based on national origin.
“Too many universities have tolerated widespread antisemitic harassment and the illegal encampments that paralyzed campus life last year, driving Jewish life and religious expression underground. The Biden Administration’s toothless resolution agreements did shamefully little to hold those institutions accountable,” said Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights.
“Today, the Department is putting universities, colleges, and K-12 schools on notice: this administration will not tolerate continued institutional indifference to the wellbeing of Jewish students on American campuses, nor will it stand by idly if universities fail to combat Jew hatred and the unlawful harassment and violence it animates,” Trainor added.
Trump administration investigating antisemitism allegations at 5 universities by Lexi Lonas Cochran, The Hill, Feb 4, 2025
unflinching 