“Boom — they’re dead.” 

Instead of an edgy teenage boy saying this in a “Call of Duty” lobby, these were the words of New York State Young Republicans, or NYSR, General Counsel Joseph Maligno talking about the best way to kill Jewish people in a group chat.

Since the release of leaked chats by the NYSR club, there has been a significant rise in Nazi and white supremacist imagery in the United States. From a University of Georgia student wearing a Nazi uniform as a Halloween costume to a U.S. representative having an altered U.S. flag with a swastika on it in his D.C. office — despite his claims that the optical illusion was sent to him — it’s a clear reminder that violent ideologies are on the rise.

We live in a world where it’s very easy to say what we want behind a screen. If it’s said in a group chat as a joke, is it okay? 

Wrong. What we say does matter, and we should never tolerate hateful language from anyone, including the people who claim to be our leaders.

Fortunately, many people were quick to criticize the words of these people — except for those in our highest offices. Vice President JD Vance dismissed these leaked chats as a “college group chat,” saying people have said much worse things about others. 

This is the next generation of leaders for the Republicans. They know better. If anything, they should know more than any of us the danger of these words. 

However, JD Vance was determined to bring up Jay Jones — a Democratic candidate to be Virginia’s attorney general — as an example of actual harmful language. In a 2022 group chat with multiple of his colleagues, Jay Jones fantasized about shooting Virginia’s former Speaker of the House Todd Gilbert and his children. Rightfully, Jay Jones should be called out for this behavior, and Virginia Democrats are in the wrong for failing to properly admonish him for his words.

With both of these scenarios, we should be quick to condemn the violent words and rhetoric used by people in our political parties. Violent language only normalizes violence in all its forms within our society, which can affect all of us. We shouldn’t see party lines as a barrier to criticism; hate is not okay because your target of criticism just so happens to disagree with you on certain issues.

Let’s ask ourselves, how does violent language — like the words of members of the NYSR club — actually hurt people? 

Words define who we are and shape our understandings of the world around us. It isn’t always immediately obvious, but when society makes the use of derogatory terms against others normal, we start to see a snowball effect of these words becoming the realities of oppressed and marginalized groups.

From dog whistles to outright hate speech, language meant to harm others can alter the way we view and treat others, leading directly to discrimination and perpetuation of further forms of violence.

As citizens of the U. S., the words we say are protected by our First Amendment right to free speech. No matter what you say or how unpopular your opinion is, those beliefs cannot be censored by the government. 

The First Amendment is often brought up in cases to defend people who use violent language. While the First Amendment protects your right to say what you want, it doesn’t protect you from the consequences. 

The government cannot do or say anything that prevents you from saying awful things, but we as citizens still have the right to call out such behavior and choose not to tolerate such words in our society. Freedom of speech goes both ways, and we should always choose to encourage speech that uplifts others.

So while you can say what you want, just remember that you are not free from being judged by others for what you say. Just ask the people involved in the NYSR group chat leak. 

We should be looking toward our leaders for examples of how to act and speak about others, but it seems as though this is no longer advisable because leaders refuse to hold those accountable who say such terrible things in exchange for party loyalty.

There is a distinct lack of empathy that is forming in our society, and we shouldn’t lose the aspects that make us human. We all have the power to respect one another and choose not to say awful things at someone else’s expense. 

Calling out people for their disgusting actions is not “woke,” and I am tired of this being the case. Life is hard enough as it is; be a human and choose not to use harmful language — even when nobody is watching. 

Wyatt Pickering is a business honors and finance junior and opinion columnist for The Battalion.