Profs & Pints DC: How Politics Got So Nasty

Profs and Pints DC presents: “How Politics Got So Nasty,” on what leads politicians in democracies to use violent and dangerous political rhetoric, with Thomas Zeitzoff, associate professor in American University’s School of Public Affairs and author of Nasty Politics. “Animals.” “Terrorists.” “Scum.” “Abomination.” These terms represent just a small sample of the harsh rhetoric recently thrown around in U.S. politics. How did American politics get this way? What prompts politicians to insult, threaten, and in rare cases incite violence against their domestic political opponents despite abundant survey-based evidence that such talk turns off voters? Come to DC’s Penn Social to hear such questions tackled by Thomas Zeitzoff, who teaches courses and conducts research on political psychology, political violence, and extremism and is the author of Nasty Politics: The Logic of Insults, Threats, and Incitement. Drawing from research for his book, Professor Zeitzoff will present a powerful theory of why nastiness takes hold in…