Degrading others through speech, e.g., 'Mass deportation now'

This week, the RNC distributed signs saying "Mass Deportation Now!", and crowd members held them up.

See one, photographed by Alex Wong/Getty Images (The Guardian)

Here's another photo by Reuters, shared by Melissa Gira Grant on Bluesky (you may need a Bluesky login)

Of this, Emily Tamkin says:

"One particularly influential Talmudic passage says, “One who speaks lashon hara is like one who denies God.” To degrade others through speech is an act so profound that, in Jewish law, it is seen as an offense against the entire moral structure of the world. Those who have committed lashon hara, the passage goes, “have said, ‘Because of our tongues we will prevail … who is master over us?’”

Watching the RNC, I realized, with horror and sadness, that, in fact, this kind of vile, disingenuous, violent language is master over us. And there are consequences to living under such a rhetorical regime.

What does it do to us, as a country, to think of people seeking a better life as hordes of violent criminals? To have a sitting governor lead a crowd chanting and cheering for mass deportations and arrests? Each time we listen to a group of people described as less than human, undeserving of dignity, we give up a bit of our own humanity, too. We surrender our dignity. We’ve been doing it for years."

— Emily Tamkin, Republican rhetoric about immigrants violates a core Jewish principle: Lashon hara — speech that degrades others — is verboten in Jewish law. But it shapes our public discourse, Forward, July 18, 2024

So @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com tweeted my piece on Trump’s mass deportation plan, adding that he doubts most people understand how cruel and abusive it would be to carry out. It went viral, which brought hundreds of blue check responses. The gist: They know. And that’s why they love it.

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— Radley Balko (@radleybalko.bsky.social) Jul 18, 2024 at 1:26 PM

In August 2024, journalist Jonathan Karl asked how it would be possible to deport many millions of people. "I mean do you go knock on doors and ask people for their papers? What do you do," Karl asked.

Part of Vance's reply was: "I think it's interesting that people focus on, well, how do you deport 18 million people? Let's start with 1 million. That's where Kamala Harris has failed. And then we can go from there."

(Source: JD Vance says mass deportations should 'start with 1 million,' defends 'thought experiment' giving parents extra votes: The GOP vice presidential candidate discussed several issues with Jonathan Karl. Ivan Pereira, ABC, August 11, 2024)

A.R. Moxon (Sept. 14, 2024): "Vance's boss, Republican presidential candidate/pants shitter Don Trump, has been energizing his base by promising to deport 15 million human beings, which is a thing that has never before been done without concentration camps and ethnic cleansing and mass murder entering the picture."

Heather Cox Richardson (September 14, 2024):

"Hunter Walker and Josh Kovensky of Talking Points Memo today explained where the lie had come from and how it had spread. More than two months ago, they wrote, Ohio senator J.D. Vance, who is Trump’s vice presidential running mate, began to speak about Springfield at a Senate Banking Committee hearing, trying to tie rising housing prices to immigrants. The next day, at the National Conservatism conference, Vance accused “illegals” of overwhelming the city.

On August 10, about a dozen neo-Nazis of the “Blood Tribe” organization showed up in Springfield, where one of their leaders said the city had been taken over by “degenerate third worlders” and blamed the Jews for the influx of migrants. The neo-Nazis stayed and, on August 27, showed up at a meeting of the city council, where their leader threatened council members. On September 1, another white supremacist group, Patriot Front, held its own “protest to the mass influx of unassimilable Haitian migrants” in the city."

Joshua P. Hill (September 15, 2024):

"Even after the bomb threats, Donald Trump gave an interview where he spoke about the mass deportation of 20,000 Haitians from Springfield specifically, and dismissed the threats that shut down multiple schools. His running mate chose to go even further and claim that there's been a rise in infectious diseases in Springfield since migrants arrived, in addition to other lies."

“If a deportation team goes to a particular house and arrests an illegal alien family — so, say, a mother, a father, and 4 children — there’s not just a plane on a tarmac that’s 10 minutes away ready to take them" Miller told Kirk Rather, he said, “you need to then build massive staging facilities”

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— Joe Sudbay (@joesudbay.bsky.social) September 14, 2024 at 5:09 PM

'They hate us': Haitian Springfield residents speak out as city remains in spotlight, Erin Glynn, Columbus Dispatch (Sept 14, 2024):

"Haitian immigrants in Springfield spoke out Saturday about the danger they feel in their community as the city remains at the center of the national debate on immigration.

The Haitian Times and the Haitian Community Help and Support Center organized a conversation with activists, journalists and Haitian residents in Springfield to respond to claims without evidence spread online."

JD Vance admitted he was willing to “create stories” smearing Haitian immigrants. Fox News mentioned it only once. www.mediamatters.org/jd-vance/jd-...

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— Media Matters for America (@mmfa.bsky.social) September 17, 2024 at 2:17 PM

The Haitian Times covered the false claims targeting Springfield. Now it’s also facing attacks, Hadas Gold, CNN, September 18, 2024