Venom on the Fringe

When a political leader espouses messages based on hate, fear and lies, bad things happen. A campaign based on that kind of rhetoric is likely to provoke violence, both for and against the candidate.

As our society attempts to process the news of what was apparently another assassination attempt against Donald Trump yesterday, it makes one wonder whether the former President will ever temper his rhetoric, and also whether we are in for more such incidents in the weeks and months ahead.

Some sort of toxic venom seems to have been unleashed in the fringes of our social order.

Hate speech is dangerous, especially in such a heavily armed, polarized society as ours. As more information emerges about the would-be assassin, especially his motives and views, this unfortunate event may have other repercussions in the short term and perhaps beyond. 

Who knows where this will lead, but this much is clear:

An injured society badly in need of healing has just suffered a new wound.

HEADLINES: 

• FBI investigating apparent assassination attempt of Trump in Florida (CNN)

• Armed with AK-47, filming with GoPro, fleeing in Nissan: What we know about Trump shooting suspect Ryan Routh (Independent)

• Trump can’t accept his poor debate. He’s spiraled into conspiracy theories. (WP)

• Trump’s VP pick JD Vance defends spreading false story about migrants (Al Jazeera)

• JD Vance defends baseless rumor about Haitian immigrants eating pets (CNN)

• Trump’s Lie Is Another Test for Christian America (Atlantic)

• Trump lashes out: "I hate Taylor Swift" (Axios)

• Haitians in Ohio find solidarity at church after chaotic week of false pet-eating claims (AP)

• A Georgia Work Program Previews How Trump Could Reshape Medicaid (NYT)

• ‘Catastrophe of epic proportions’: eight drown in Europe amid heavy floods (Guardian)

• Taliban begins enforcing new draconian laws, and Afghan women despair (WP)

• The crime of being a woman in Afghanistan: ‘A Taliban can knock on your door at night, rape you, take you away and marry you’ (El Pais)

• America keeps Ukraine fighting with its hands tied (Economist)

• To save these nearly-extinct birds scientists are turning to the once unthinkable (WP)

• FDA approves some Apple AirPods to be used as hearing aids (NPR)

• Microsoft’s Hypocrisy on AI (Atlantic)

• Moscow Expels 6 British Diplomats Who Would Not Shut Up About ‘Doctor Who’ (The Onion)