Trump's choosing words to neutralize their power.
In a sit-down chat between MSNBC anchors Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow, the topic of Trump's choice of words was raised.
"The use of the word 'vermin' and with the way that he's calling his enemies 'fascist' — he's started calling you and me and anybody who's not Team Trump a fascist."
Maddow discussed this while appearing on “Why Is This Happening?” to also promote her book Prequel about the World War II era battle to preserve American democracy from being undone by the Nazis.
Maddow claimed the effort is similar to Trump's use of "fake news" that over time lost its power and meaning after it became ubiquitous.
With the word "fascist" it's even more blatant.
"He has to save the world from the fascist," she said. "And he's using this terminology which is overtly and obviously fascist callback language: 'Enemy of the People' yeah okay, but calling the internal enemy 'vermin' that needs to be exterminated — he knows what he's doing."
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The use of "vermin" went alight following a Veterans Day speech in New Hampshire where Trump declared: "We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections."
“They’ll do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and to destroy the American Dream.”
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung later noted: “Those who try to make that ridiculous assertion are clearly snowflakes grasping for anything because they are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome and their entire existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House."
Maddow argues it's this machine-gun use of the same word that starts to suck its potency to the point where "the word 'fascist' doesn't mean anything anymore and we don't have any word anymore to describe what this is that he's trying to get us to do."
