By Phillip C. Parrish, LCDR, USN (Ret.), Candidate for Minnesota Governor 2026
As Minnesota’s gubernatorial candidate Phillip C. Parrish, I’ve spent weeks building on the conversation I started in my previous article about the palpable rise in negativity and violence since mid-August 2025. From the devastating Annunciation school shooting to the recent assassinations of Democratic lawmakers Melissa Hortman and John Hoffman—allegedly carried out by a Trump supporter named Vance Boelter—and now the tragic loss of Charlie Kirk to a sniper’s bullet in Utah, these incidents aren’t just random acts. They’re symptoms of a deeper malaise, one fueled not by inanimate objects like guns, but by the deliberate or careless twisting of words that poisons our discourse and incites harm. Today, I want to pull together a thread that’s been weaving through my talks with Minnesotans: the power of language. In a healthy society, words must mean something real, grounded in truth and reality. When they’re warped to deflect, divide, or deceive, they become weapons that amplify the darkness we’re all feeling.
Words are the building blocks of our shared reality. They shape how we see the world, how we treat each other, and how we respond to crises. In a decent, functioning society, language fosters understanding and accountability. But when people twist words into meanings that are unhealthy, detached from reality, or manipulative, it reveals something broken in them—and in the systems that let it spread. Take the ongoing debate around gun violence, for instance. After the Annunciation tragedy, where a gunman targeted Catholic families in a hate-fueled rampage, much of the public conversation fixated on “guns” as the villain, as if cold metal could harbor intent or pull its own trigger. This deflection creates cognitive dissonance—leaving us mentally torn between blaming an object and grappling with the human rage behind it. Recent studies suggest political affiliation can shape how exposure to such violence skews our cognition, hardening divisions rather than fostering empathy. By misusing words to shift focus, we evade the harder truth: Violence stems from unhealthy individuals, not inanimate tools.
This misuse of language is a hallmark of those who wield words inappropriately—to distract from behaviors, to gaslight entire communities, or to avoid accountability. They create darkness by eroding trust and stoking confusion. Consider the tragic loss of Charlie Kirk, a father and husband taken by a sniper’s bullet, which sparked immediate partisan spin: some blamed “Trump’s rhetoric” while others cried “Democrat propaganda,” turning a profound grief into a shouting match. Lost in the noise? The human cost: families shattered, not just in Utah but across Minnesota with our own recent losses. This cycle of twisted rhetoric fuels cognitive dissonance, forcing us to question our own perceptions while drowning out shared mourning. Research from Johns Hopkins highlights how politically charged language is eroding our mental clarity, amplifying tensions that lead to violence. As one X user noted amid the fallout, “It’s this exact kind of rhetoric that muddies our minds and fuels the hate we see.”
Nowhere is this more evident than in the lazy shorthand of “left wing” and “right wing.” What do these even mean anymore? If we follow the logic, they’re wings of a bird—two parts of one whole, working together to keep the body aloft. The terms trace back to the French Revolution of 1789, a seating chart turned ideology. But today, they oversimplify complex views into cartoonish camps, creating cognitive dissonance as we struggle to reconcile our individual beliefs with these artificial labels. In the wake of Minnesota’s violence—whether the Hortman-Hoffman killings labeled “right-wing extremism” or Kirk’s death tied to “leftist terror”—these terms confuse more than they clarify, sowing psychological harm by framing neighbors as enemies. Most of us are innocently caught in this, unaware of how this linguistic manipulation distorts our thinking. But a small group knowingly uses it—coercing, gaslighting, and indoctrinating—to deepen the chaos we’re witnessing.
This intellectual and moral breakage in language extends to the most vulnerable among us: our children. In classrooms across Minnesota, made-up words and redefined terms are being weaponized to confuse young minds about the basic realities of biological facts—the immutable truths of male and female as created by God. Proposed updates to our sex education standards, set to roll out for the 2025-26 school year, would require third-graders to define “gender identity” and “sexual orientation,” while introducing non-binary pronouns and gender-neutral language that blurs the lines of biology. Teachers and parents have raised alarms about this “big hurry” to push such concepts on elementary students, arguing it promotes gender confusion rather than clarity, exploiting impressionable kids at a time when they’re forming their core sense of self. This isn’t education; it’s indoctrination, creating profound cognitive dissonance in children who are told their bodies and biology are mere suggestions, open to fluid reinterpretation. It preys on their innocence, twisting foundational truths into subjective feelings, and sets the stage for lifelong mental strain. As one Minnesota educator put it, we’re rushing to redefine reality for the youngest among us, all under the guise of inclusivity, while ignoring the divine design that grounds us all. This moral failing in our language doesn’t just confuse—it exploits, leaving our kids adrift in a sea of half-truths that erode their trust in the very world we’re meant to protect.
This ties to the awakening I described before—the crumbling worldviews, the healthy anger turning toward truth. As more Minnesotans reject these lies, they crave language that heals, not harms. Surveys show broad agreement on curbing violence through common-sense approaches, transcending partisan labels. Yet the storm persists, with 2025 already marked by over 200 shootings on New Year’s alone, many tied to escalating tensions. To those feeling isolated in this fog of words: You’re not alone. The cognitive dissonance—the mental strain of navigating twisted rhetoric—is real, but so is our capacity to reclaim clarity.
In the months ahead, as rhetoric intensifies toward elections, let’s commit to words that build: Honest ones that name violence as a human failing, not a political slogan. Let’s turn from the confusion of division back to our Creator, where truth resides. Minnesota, we have the resilience to weather this. Speak plainly, listen deeply, and remember: One bird, two wings. Together, we fly. If this resonates, join me at an event or reach out—let’s rewrite the story with words that mean something.
With unwavering integrity and dedication,
Phillip C. Parrish
Candidate for Governor of Minnesota 2026
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