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Brian Ott is a Professor of Communication at Missouri State University. According to his university profile, his research looks at the intersection of rhetoric and media.

Professor Ott published an op-ed in The New York Times titled, “I Studied Trump’s Twitter Use for Six Years. Prepare for the Worst.” In his article, Ott claims, “…nothing Mr. Musk has done … is nearly as concerning as his decision to suddenly reinstate former President Donald Trump’s account.”

Ott says he has been studying Trump’s Twitter activity since before he became president, and adds:

“…I believe that his return would mean the heightened spread of both misinformation and disinformation, the proliferation of degrading and dehumanizing discourse, the further mainstreaming of hate speech and the erosion of democratic norms and institutions.” 

He also believes Trump’s return to Twitter could lead to political violence because he has “demonstrated a consistent willingness to invoke racially and sexually charged rhetoric that contains an implicit call to violence.”

This is not the first time Ott has spoken out against Donald Trump’s Twitter use. In 2019, he published a book titled, “The Twitter Presidency: Donald J. Trump and the Politics of White Rage.” This book looks at Trump’s “rhetorical style,” arguing that it “reflects an aesthetics of white rage, and it is rooted in authoritarianism, narcissism, and demagoguery.”

The abstract of his book describes Trump supporters as people who “feel aggrieved at the decentering of white masculinity” and argues that his rhetorical style “threatens democratic norms, principles, and institutions.”

 

Published – November 23, 2022