Saturday, December 13, 2025 | 06:31 AM ISTहिंदी में पढें
Business Standard
Notification Icon
userprofile IconSearch

Charlottesville attacks: Warning signs of mass violence in the US?

Local governments are declaring themselves sanctuary cities or cities of resistance

Charlottesville
premium

Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville (Photo: AP/PTI)

Max Pensky | The Conversation

There are those who say that comparing President Donald Trump’s rhetoric to that of Adolf Hitler is alarmist, unfair and counterproductive.

And yet, there has been no dearth of such comparisons since the 2016 presidential election. Many commentators have also drawn parallels between the conduct of Trump supporters and Holocaust-era Nazis.

The comparisons continue today, and Trump’s comments in the wake of the Charlottesville attack show why. The president’s reference to violence on “both sides” implies moral equivalence, which is a familiar rhetorical strategy