The Nazi party strategically used disgusting imagery, describing Jewish people as dirty, greasy, or slimy. This rhetorical strategy was designed to elicit visceral disgust, thereby dehumanizing an entire population and motivating social avoidance, ostracism, and ultimately, violence.

Ken Burns argues that beyond taxes and representation, the American Revolution was propelled by escalating media rhetoric. The more colonial newspapers labeled the crown tyrannical, the more tyrannical it acted, creating an inflammatory feedback loop that pushed both sides toward conflict.

Marat's journalism employed timeless populist tactics. He invoked "The People" as a pure entity betrayed by traitors, obsessed over conspiracies, and used the language of waking the masses from their slumber—a direct parallel to modern phrases like "wake up sheeple" and the concept of being "woke."

While the Parisian public, fueled by radical journalists, demanded Marie Antoinette's execution, key leaders like Robespierre and Danton viewed her as a defeated, powerless hostage. Their strategic focus was on internal political rivals like the Girondins, highlighting a clear disconnect between elite political priorities and populist sentiment.

When the prosecution's case against Marie Antoinette proved thin on hard evidence, radical journalist Jacques Hébert introduced a devastating statement. He presented a signed confession from her 8-year-old son alleging she had committed incest, ensuring a guilty verdict by shocking the public and the tribunal.

Jean-Paul Marat's populist newspaper was directly inspired by his time in London observing the radical journalist John Wilkes. Wilkes's style of attacking government corruption and invoking "the ordinary people" provided a direct template for Marat's revolutionary rhetoric, linking the two nations' political currents.

While grotesque, pornographic fantasies about Marie Antoinette were widely circulated, they were combined with a core truth: she was actively conspiring with foreign powers against the revolution. This blend of outrageous fiction and verifiable treason made the propaganda incredibly potent and believable to the public.

Marat's physical repulsiveness and lack of charm were turned into political assets. He framed politeness and courtesy as signs of elite deception and treason. His ugliness became a symbol of his authenticity and his refusal to conform to the polished, and therefore corrupt, standards of the old regime.

The concept of "Terror" wasn't a later historical invention or a pejorative term. Revolutionaries like Bertrand Barère publicly proclaimed, "Let terror be the order of the day," as a positive, deliberate policy to manage national crises and institutionalize repression against the revolution's perceived enemies.