The stench of toxic politics

If words had a smell, you can bet that it would be an unpleasant one for many of them. The stench, however, would not really emanate from the words themselves, but from the manner in which they are delivered, from the attitude of the person using them. It might be macho and threatening: "You're trash… Get lost…" The person who spoke these words recently in a social media post referring to a retired police officer also had the look to match the verbal swagger: a tight T-shirt showing off his biceps, an angry frown, a slightly bored demeanor, resting a cheek in the palm of his hand.

A few weeks earlier, another specimen of such machismo bullied a female colleague in Parliament to the extent of making another female colleague - from the same party as himself, we might add - burst into tears. He then went on to accuse the colleague who reacted to the harassment of shady dealings...