From the New York Times readers comments...

Jean Davis
Toulouse, France
January 10th, 2011
1:24 pm
After a moment of profound sadness, and after reading such reflections as this one in reaction to the horror in Arizona, I was reminded of the German Jewish philologist, Victor Klemperer who, after losing his position at the university of Dresden, spent the dark years of WWII analysing the evolution and radicalisation of the German Language. His excellent notebook, LTI (Lingua Tertii Imperii, latin version of Language of the Third Reich) is still very valid. This excerpt comes from a Wikipedia reference:

How "the language of a clique became the language of a people"

"No, the most powerful influence was exerted neither by individual speeches nor by articles or flyers, posters or flags; it was not achieved by things which one had to absorb by conscious thought or conscious emotions.
Instead Nazism permeated the flesh and blood of the people through single words, idioms and sentence structures which were imposed on them in a million repetitions and taken on board mechanically and unconsciously. . . language does not simply write and think for me, it also increasingly dictates my feelings and governs my entire spiritual being the more unquestioningly and unconsciously I abandon myself to it.
And what happens if the cultivated language is made up of poisonous elements or has been made the bearer of poisons? Words can be like tiny doses of arsenic: they are swallowed unnoticed, appear to have no effect, and then after a little time the toxic reaction sets in after all.


188.
HIGHLIGHT (what's this?)
ann
canada
January 10th, 2011
1:25 pm
I am fortunate to have been too young to remember the assassinations of the 60's. As time went by, the concept of assassination in our country became more a theme for Clint Eastwood movies than a reality that we had to endure. I think that PK is correct -- that the corporate involvement in this rhetoric has created an environment where assassinations became possible again. And I think that it is telling that Republicans are not the targets, are not in any real fear of wing nuts shooting them. The Tea Party and the far right are bullies -- threatening violence when their ideologies are challenged. I can see why some compare them with the Taliban. They excuse virtually any tactic they employ in their grab for power, at bottom, it seems, because they believe they are more godly than their opponents. The mind boggling incongruity of gunliness and godliness makes the present-day "conservatives" frighteningly close to the Tabliban.