I’m hoping it’s obvious why this is related to politics . . .
Dr. Erica Brozovsky, PhD of the PBS series Otherwords explained how cult leaders use provocatively loaded language with their followers to create an adversarial relationship with the “other side” of their way of thinking – an “us versus them” mentality. It also keeps them invested, obedient, and ready to defend their way of thinking to anyone who questions them
Loaded language is a general term for words or phrases that have deep emotional associations for the listener, like genocide, patriot, toxic, or vermin. …Through repetition, these leaders ingrained an intense emotional association in their follower’s psyche …They shut down argument and critical thinking, which is why they’re so handy to authoritarians who don’t like to be questioned.
“We know who we are by who we are not.“
Sounds an awful lot like the political positions I hear all the goddamn time in the US.
I mostly see it on the right but I definitely don’t like it when I see anyone, regardless of their politics, cheer because someone else lost in a way that doesn’t even impact them