The Weaponization of Fear: Why Johnson’s Smears Aren’t Just Rhetoric, They’re a Prescription for Violence

A speaker who smears peaceful pro-democracy Americans to distract from a shutdown he helped cause

By Dr. John Petrone

They say language precedes action. In a country where political violence has already claimed lives, where threats saturate social media and protests are met with paramilitaries or arrests, it is downright reckless for the Speaker of the House to call a planned October 18th “No Kings” peaceful mobilization a “Hate America” rally, “pro-Hamas,” and tied to “Antifa.”

He is not simply mischaracterizing dissent—he is painting an entire movement as an enemy. He is stoking the kind of paranoia that has historically served as the prelude to violence.

When Smears Become Incitement

• Labeling citizens who plan to assemble as “pro-Hamas” or “pro-terrorist” is not a difference of opinion—it is a declaration of legitimacy for hostility. Once a group is branded as “terror” or “hate,” it becomes justifiable to treat them like enemies: surveil them, suppress them, stigmatize them, or worse.

• In the past few election cycles, politicians on both sides have used similar tropes—“insurrectionists,” “violent mobs,” “domestic terrorists”—and each time, that language bleeds into policing, security crackdowns, and vigilante threats.

• We do not live in a vacuum. Threats are real. Violence is real. Words of demonization pave the road.

• We have witnessed how labeling one side “evil” or “traitorous” dehumanizes them, making them easier targets for attacks or censorship.

This Is Not Political Theater — It’s Dangerous Play with Fire

Mike Johnson is not just playing rhetorical hardball—he is playing with live ammunition. His smear is not confined to broadcast media; it seeps into local law enforcement, social media mobs, and armed defectors convinced they’re fighting a righteous war.

Every time we let powerful leaders denounce peaceful protestors as terrorists without consequence, we move closer to a moment when someone decides that literal force is justified.

They Are Not “Them” — They Are Americans

The No Kings mobilization is not an “enemy insurgency”—it is a gathering of citizens demanding accountability, transparency, and democracy. The people planning to show up on Oct. 18 are your neighbors, your teachers, your veterans, your coworkers. They are not a conspiracy; they are alive, human, ordinary people.

When Johnson says, “they’re all coming out … pro-Hamas, Antifa, selling T-shirts,” he is trying to reset the narrative: not a democracy under pressure—but a revolt led by radicals that must be crushed.

Why This Must Be Called Out, Loudly

• Because silence enables escalation. Letting these lies go unchecked gives permission to those already itching to carry arms, to harass, to detain, to shut down gatherings.

• Because defamation from the highest levels is a warning shot. It signals that dissent is not to be tolerated—and that the next step might not be words but actions.

• Because peaceful protest is a fundamental right. The First Amendment doesn’t distinguish between “popular” speech and inconvenient truth.

What Democracy Demands from Us

1. Refuse the framing. It is not a “pro-Hamas rally”. Correct it: it is a pro-democracy, constitution-upholding rally.

2. Call out local officials. Demand your police and prosecutors refuse to treat peaceful protesters as criminals.

3. Build legal defenses. Organizers must prepare for harassment, protection orders, legal observers, and constitutional litigation.

4. Expose the hypocrisy. Every lawmaker who votes to continue the shutdown or allows this rhetoric has blood on their hands if a protester is injured or targeted.

5. Document everything. Use video, audio, affidavits. If something happens, denial must fail.

6. Stay nonviolent — and train others to do the same. Because they’re trying to bait the crowd into confrontation. Don’t give them reason.

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Powerful speech can inspire, but when leaders use it as a weapon to target their own constituents, it ceases to be speech—it becomes an act of political violence in waiting. Mike Johnson’s words today are not innocent. They are an invitation to abuse.

And we must refuse that invitation.

Release the Epstein Files!