Bravo to Jonathan P. Baird (“A campaign of hatred,” Dec. 8). This piece succinctly spells out the current culture we are experiencing.
Make no mistake, words matter. Creating the “other” is a hallmark of fascism. Repeating hatred perpetuates hatred and embeds itself in a sleepwalking society. It happened in 1930s Germany and it is happening here now. As George Lakoff has put it, “Hate speech can also change the brains of those with mild prejudice, moving it towards hate and threatening action. When hate is physically in your brain, then you think hate and feel hate, you are moved to act to carry out what you physically, in your neural system, think and feel. That is why hate speech in not ‘mere’ speech.”
Lee Janko
Peterborough