Words Matter: The Marketing Of January 6th Capitol Violence

Bill, I always enjoy doing these episodes with you. I look forward to it. I’d have to say now, I’m still in somewhat of a state of shock. What you and I planned to talk about got hijacked by what has happened in our country. I’m talking about the mob that charged the US Capitol. There are many things we could talk about and we are going to talk about, but a great place to start is the closing prayer that was given in the joint session of Congress after all this violence happened, after the Capitol was cleared and our political leaders came back together to do the important business that they set out to do. We’re talking about a prayer, and I want to preface this with the fact that we’re not having a religious discussion, but a communication discussion. You and I are not the most religious people on Earth, but it doesn’t matter. This is a discussion about language and communication.

I’ve found the message of the prayer to be important. The big thing that stood out from it is when he said, “Words matter.” Our words matter, our leader’s words matter, and this is something a lot of people have been talking about over the whole Donald Trump presidency. It matters what President Donald Trump says from the podium. Never more true words were spoken. That’s our departure point now, words matter and those were excellent words to bring everyone together after the events and tragedy of people losing their lives at the Capitol, whether it was from violence or it happened to be medical conditions, but four people lost their lives. There was violence, vandalism, damage, not to mention breaking and entering, trespassing. There’s a laundry list of things that were wrong with what happened. Why did it happen?

How we communicate makes a big difference. One of the poignant sentences in the prayer was, “The power of life and death is in the tongue.” You and I have done a lot of episodes about communication, but to be stated strongly that the power of life and the power of death is in the tongue, it means that you may want to pick better words to have a better life. You may want to fight for a stronger value than just try to pick one value at the expense of your fellow American and human being. In that prayer, there was a request for us to remember our common humanity and not to pit ourselves against ourselves.

It’s one thing to get your need for being heard met and to express yourself in the courtyard or in a gathering place at the Capitol and say, “We’re in pain about this issue. We need to do something about this issue.” Whether it’s gun violence or Black Lives Matter or how to fight for climate change, the health of the planet in different areas, it’s all of these different advocacies to see our common humanity. What is it going to take to create the level of healing and unity in a divided nation, in a divided world? We’ve got to upgrade our language and behavior.

Those are the two things that have been sorely lacking with our executive leadership quite honestly, the behavior and the language used. There was no better example, although regrettably there have been thousands of examples in the last many years, but no better example than the speech that President Donald Trump gave to the supporters who were there, to what we thought were pro-peaceful protestors, that he riled them up by the language he used. He said, “We’re going to march down the street to the Capitol. I’m going to march with you. I’m going to be there with you. You have to be strong.” Everything that he was saying riled them up and turned them into a mob that was going to attack.

Words do matter to invite or incite people to motivate for a cause. The cause is think about the needs that were being met on that march. We are going there to be heard. We’re going there to get fairness, to get justice and to make sure that our truth about the election is going to be seen, heard and delivered. They’re not even aware that their needs are important, that are common between that marcher and you and I have been set up to motivate them to take that march. Because if you and I had the same set of needs like fairness, respect and justice, we could be marching right there with them. If we were to believe that it was true, we would be on the march to do it, if we thought that we were fighting for the right. Meanwhile, what happens if you’ve signed up for a cause that is not for the best interest of the nation? That is not in the best interest of your common man? You’re taking somebody else’s rights away because of your action, and that’s the thing that’s difficult about it. It’s one thing to have protests for the Vietnam War and ask, “Why are we going there to do that thing?”

To question the decision, the judgment that was made to go there, “Is it worth the price in lives and dollars?” That kind of protest is a way to be heard and to have a debate about it. What happened was an angry mob not wanting to accept certain facts and truths.

How we communicate makes a big difference.

CLICK TO TWEET

Even if you’re listening for somebody that’s holding for the truth like the Secretary of State for Georgia, holding for the truth, “The truth is we didn’t find that, Mr. President. That wasn’t what our numbers were showing. This is the way our numbers were showing. Somebody gave you bad numbers, Mr. President.” He is giving them off-ramp after off-ramp language-wise to say, “Your numbers are not the same as my numbers?” There’s not a pursuit of truth in that. There is, “Your numbers are wrong. My numbers are right.” That’s not pursuing truth and it’s most certainly not aligned with things like mutual respect, integrity, justice and fairness. It’s not that at all.

He was exhorting power through repetition, “All I need is.” There was a begging quality to it. There was a, “Can you do me this favor thing?” It’s one thing if you’re borrowing $50 from somebody or you’re a homeless person standing on the corner going like, “I don’t have anything for food or water or shelter or alcohol or drugs.” Meanwhile it’s, “I need support. Can you help me with support?” When you think about Donald Trump’s phone call from that viewpoint, you’re going like, “He was looking for support any way he could find it. It was okay with him to ask for it and it not be true or not be valid because he created a belief that it was true to him.”

This is why this show and the discussion about how well we can restore truth is essential is that we’ve got to use our words to incite and invite people to motivate for the cause of America’s identity, not for the needs of the individual, which we’ve been doing for a while now. If you’re going for the needs of the individual versus the needs of the group, then the right for one person to carry a gun anywhere they want and everybody has to get over it, that’s not a strong community, peace, harmony, justice thing. They’re not going to get their way in the long run because the larger group is going to go like, “We’re tired of it and we’re not going to see violence on our TV anymore.” What’s the quickest way not to see violence on TV? It gets a little bit wacky because the thing they’re fighting for is the thing they’re not going to get.

One of the things that I shouldn’t be surprised but still surprised me is seeing after the mob charged the Capitol building, broke glass, having the run of the place, there were people who were a part of that group who were interviewed. They were asked if they believe that this action was justified, if they felt good about it. The people who were asked, at least with this report that I saw said, “Yes it was justified.” They had no problem with it. When do people who have had their truth hijacked and purchased so much start to gain perspective and see things differently? What’s a line that would wake them up to start to be considerate more of others and to look a little differently? Where is that line? How do people transform and get to that place?

Step number one is to make sure you hear the person’s belief fully even though it might not be true because it could be a fallacy or a bias. As a communication person or expert that I come in and I hear the person’s sentence first, “You would like me to hear that you experienced the truth that there were problems in voting. Is that what you’d like me to hear?” They then say, “Yes.” I’m building an agreement on their agreement, what is solid in their mind. I’ve got to do a good job as a listener and as a communicator as it was mentioned in the closing prayer, recognize that life and death is in that tongue because how do we measure life and death? We measure life and death through time. It’s that this belief is a death belief. It is eating up this person’s time and they don’t know it. It’s a belief that it is not serving them, others, and the nation.

I’ve got to be present to and then the next sentence might sound like, “I’m guessing that you did feel angry and you did feel helpless. You wanted to take this time to show how angry and helpless you were. Is that correct?” “Yes,” they would say. At least as identifying it, I’m getting them ready for the truth versus the truth that they believe is true. I’m building up enough energy. Through a measured set of questions, all of a sudden, we turn the corner of conflict, “How can you and I get the truth and trust in the results?” Now they are ready to listen. It seems like we have people that are, “Do you trust Republicans?” “Yes.” “Do you trust the person that’s counting it?” “No.” They’re not looking at all the places they need to be looking at because President Donald Trump has said, “Look over here, there are these kinds of ballots.” We’ve got a propaganda machine running on one side where it’s trying to pollute the environment in a way that is very disheartening and disconnecting. It’s funny that we’re talking about it because in one of my posts, I put on a Winston Churchill quote.



I saw that. It’s something about that a lie can travel around the world faster than the truth before he gets the chance to put on his pants.

Words do matter to invite or incite people to motivate for a cause.

CLICK TO TWEET

I’m dumbfounded right now how strong a message that would have been. It would’ve gotten national attention. It would have had an impact far beyond South Carolina and electing Lindsey Graham or not. It would have spilled over into other candidates that had similar issues with integrity.

The Felisha Leffler vote would have been a larger margin. The other votes in other sense around integrity.

What you’re saying is that this politician would say, “I completely respect you, Mr. and Mrs. South Carolina voter, that if your values don’t align with me, then you’re not going to vote for me. I don’t think you should vote for me.” What happens in that process is he establishes that he has such strong values and strong integrity that even people that disagree with him are going to admire him. They’re going to feel like, “What does it say about my integrity if I vote for Lindsey Graham now?”

You’re calling the common need forward in order to expose truths or the broader message.

It would cast such a cloud over Lindsey Graham’s wisdom, decision-making, hypocrisy and integrity. It muddies the water so bad for that opponent in a way that he cannot defend. He is defenseless against that. That South Carolina and certain Senate races, that would have been an excellent message.

You want the doubt and skepticism to sit on your side communication-wise. What happens, Tom, in order to put our arms around it a little bit more, it’s saying to the listener, “It’s okay If you don’t like me. I’m a human being too. I’m sitting with a set of values here. I’m fighting for a set of values that we all can agree upon. What I’m fighting for is integrity and this guy doesn’t have any.” Watch this sentence and try not to laugh too hard. It might sound like this, “It seems like between when Lindsey Graham said this and they’re somewhere along the road, it seems like the need for integrity fell off the truck and Lindsey Graham seemed like he’s left that behind.” Now, I’m telling a story about the loss of integrity.



It gives the voter an off-ramp because you voted for him, “Before, you were on his team,” but it gives them an off-ramp to say, “I’m no longer on his team.”