Loud and angry voices: The insidious influence

In this paper, Charles Taylor's political philosophy is applied to the influence of inflammatory speech (e.g., militia anti‐government rhetoric) that gained national attention in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing. The humanities and social science traditions provide insights for this analysis. Perceived effects of anti‐ and pro‐government speech on national climate and general harm were investigated in one quantitative study. Specifically, negative rhetoric impacted national climate in terms of increasing feelings of fear and hostility and reducing the sense of security and solidarity. Positive rhetoric influenced the national climate by affecting security and solidarity. Furthermore, people found negative speech more socially detrimental and personally upsetting than positive speech. A discussion of the implications and importance of these findings concludes with the paradox that free speech involving negative rhetoric both underscores democratic values as well as undermines them.