Tripwire politics are a mechanism of dismissal and, in some cases, violence. They function as follows: A set of terminology accrues reputations based on its history (such as Nazi, fascist, Hitler, rights, freedom, autonomy, etc.). Political actors will goad their rivals into activating the tripwires, or more often, giving the illusion that they have activated the tripwires to their supporter base. Now, the political rival is marked, often permanently, with the historical connotations of all the terms for all the tripwires they have supposedly activated. This strategy tends to rely on false conditionals that convince others that the reputational damage endured upon crossing the tripwire is valid.
The effects of tripwire politics are corrosive, dangerous, and rely on and encourage miscommunication. Often, tripwires are used as argumentative ends when they fail to prove any point, effectively leaving an argument incomplete. Crossing the tripwire is seldom evidence of whether or not the subject at hand is morally wrong. Further reasons should be given, not only on why the label is wrong, but why the specific instance being described is wrong, regardless of the labels the tripwire has activated. Additionally, one may have activated tripwires without any indication. An old statement or joke from a prior age where acceptable language differed is held to current standards. Forgiveness is nearly impossible. Once an opponent has activated the tripwire, discarding their entire person becomes not only acceptable, but necessary. In most cases, this discarding manifests in not needing to seriously deal with an actor’s arguments due to their trespasses. All is permissible to dismiss because they are an undesirable. In the most extreme of cases, the connotative assassination of a rival’s character results in real-world violence, such as an attempted assassination, a successful assassination, or an assault. Examples of this include the recently assassinated Charlie Kirk, who, despite not exhibiting any alignment with historical fascism, was nonetheless believed to be a fascist by his shooter. This was made evident through the shooter’s bullet inscriptions that read, “Hey fascist! Catch!” and “Oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao.” The shooter simply made the connection that others refused to: if America has dealt with fascists through war and death, what precludes a modern fascist from receiving the same treatment? Alas, such circumstances aptly demonstrate the danger of tripwire politics.
The illusion of a tripwire is formed when false equivalencies are made. So, a political actor may apply a vague umbrella term to two categories: one with a historically strong evocation, and the other with the subject they are attempting to promote or defame. The strong historical evocation always becomes the evocation of the new subject. “Rights” is perhaps one of the most egregious examples of a tripwire that pollutes discourse, often expressed as “human rights.” The actual word ‘right’ is rather vague and open in meaning, being an ability granted by government. The preface of ‘human’ fails to change the neutral bend of the word. Nonetheless, the word is granted elevated status as a consequence of history. It is effectively used to evoke the women’s suffrage movement and even desegregation and emancipation. Thus, any succeeding usage of the word ‘right’ connotes that a political rival is in opposition to the political say of women and the equality of races. All the passion and anger from these historical events is now placed on the head of the political rival, even if the issue they are opposing that has been labeled as a ‘right’ bears no similarity with just movements of the past. Often, both rivals share the common ground that said past movements were justified and beneficial. When the term “human rights” is applied to both a genocide and the right to abort a growing baby in the womb, the most morally despicable common denominator replaces the lesser. Equating the right to live amidst a genocide and the right to dispose of the unborn is only possible with the false equivalents that come with tripwires.Along with rights, freedom, and autonomy are used as extremely common tripwires, especially in an American context. Due to America’s search for freedom in reaction to British imposition, freedom is viewed as though it is itself a virtue by most Americans. Freedom is, unfortunately, incredibly vague. Thus, arguing that someone is or will impinge on freedoms is not an overly meaningful statement.
De Facto Times 