Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does. Think up your own way of speaking, even if only to convey that thing you think everyone is saying. Make an effort to separate yourself from the internet. Read books – From On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (p. 59) by Timothy Snyder.
Snyder starts this chapter noting how “Hitler’s language rejected legitimate opposition”. Hitler would say “people” when he meant “some people”. Now Trump says “treason” is disagreeing with him.
What is meant by “Patriot”? “American”? For some these bring up thoughts of white English-speaking people, possibly ex-military. For others it’s people in a variety of colors and shapes who may have been born in the US or elsewhere, but who are contributing to their community and thus all of us.
Snyder urges us to be conscious of our words and their use. He suggests reading books in general to observe language use and broaden our thoughts and knowledge:
Any good novel enlivens our ability to think about ambiguous situations and judge the intentions of others. Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being might suit our moment. Sinclair Lewis’s novel It Can’t Happen Here is perhaps not a great work of art; Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America is better.
Something I’ve observed in reading Agatha Christie (starting with The Mysterious Affair At Styles) was that she always wrote in her present day, but that is not our present day, which can make me think. Her characters in Styles are all affected by WWI. Her thriller The Secret Adversary has two young people at loose ends after WWI deciding to have adventures. What happens next is fiction – but young people at loose ends after WWI were common at the time.Some of her characters got involved with fascist organizations, others leftists, and others became spies or focused on getting rich. Over time I spent a fair amount of time on Wikipedia learning more about British history, British society, and international relations during the period.
I also recommend Rachel Maddow’s book Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism.
Living ~400lbs 