On The Young Turks, Angelo Carusone explains how right-wing's “coup” messaging is designed “to stoke their extremists”
Carusone: “They're trying to scare people. ... They understand what their people are going to do when you start using terminology like that"
Published
Citation From the October 3 edition of The Young Turks' The Conversation
ANGELO CARUSONE (PRESIDENT, MEDIA MATTERS): I think the part about the use of the word “coup," which actually is even more unsettling than the hypocrisy, is that it's just like the "invasion" part of it, the use of the terminology “invasion."
It's not just that they're trying to be -- that they are being hypocritical in trying to flip the scripts or invalidate it, but they're actually trying to reinforce a sense of urgency, because they understand that unlike even, I mean, in the 90s to an extent, but much more so now, power in particular on the right is being organized on what most people consider the fringes -- but they're no longer the fringes, because that's where power is being organized.
And so, when you use terminology like “coup", it's not just in part to invalidate the -- to invalidate it. They're also trying to stoke their extremists because that raises the stakes for everybody, right? They're trying to scare people. I mean, that's ultimately what it boils down to, because they understand what their people are going to do when you start using terminology like that.
It justifies what follows, because it invalidates it in a really intense way.
CENK UYGUR (HOST): Yeah, even Fox News legal analyst Judge [Andrew] Napolitano has said using words like that is palpably dangerous, because it empowers the crazies to take physical, violent action. So, it has consequences.