'Stoke the flames': Expert pinpoints the words that trigger MAGA

By Alex Hinton, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology; Director, Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, Rutgers University - Newark “No profanity.” This is the one rule spelled out on a sign in Lance Walker’s barbershop in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where political discussion between clients can get heated. Jansen later explained to me that she was concerned about widespread accusations that Trump incited violence at the U.S. Capitol – and that, more broadly, “people on the right are more targeted as hateful and using hate speech.” Chad Collie, another conservative member of the UR Action declaration team, told me in an interview that Trump supporters “take offense” when the terms “incitement” and “insurrection” are used to describe Trump’s Jan. 6 rally. A Trump supporter attends a campaign rally on Nov. 2, 2024, in Greensboro, N.C. Alex Brandon/AP ‘Racist’ Trump supporters were called “deplorables” by former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016. More broadly, the use of “racist” and related terms plays into many Trump voters’ perceptions and anger that Democrats are elitist liberals who they think look down upon and even hate them. No one, however, wore a shirt to a Trump rally emblazoned with the word “racist.” Words are like bees America’s political division is intertwined with how language – sometimes a single word – can be understood differently by liberals and conservatives and trigger a negative reaction.