The Performativity of Weaponized Language: Manipulation, Power, and Resistance

Dorota Drałus; Monika Wichłacz

doi:10.18290/rns2025.0011

Published : 2025-03-31

Vol. 53 No. 1 (2025)

The Performativity of Weaponized Language: Manipulation, Power, and Resistance

Dorota Drałus

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6029-9230

Monika Wichłacz

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7736-422X

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rns2025.0011

Abstract

This study explores weaponized communication—a strategic manipulation of language used to influence perceptions, emotions, and behavior while undermining democratic values and societal cohesion. Building on theories of speech acts by John L. Austin and John Searle, it examines how language’s performative nature is exploited to reshape realities, normalize exclusion, and disrupt public trust. Weaponized communication leverages modern technology to amplify cognitive overload, disinformation, and divisive narratives, marking a shift from traditional persuasion to emotion-driven, viral rhetoric. This transformation challenges ethical norms and raises concerns about language as a tool of coercion and oppression. The paper also links historical insights from Sophistic rhetoric and Confucian linguistic principles to contemporary issues like propaganda and hate speech. By analyzing these mechanisms, the study sheds light on the intersection of language, power, and societal change, emphasizing the urgent need for ethical discourse in the digital era.

Keywords:

speech acts, performativity of language, disinformation, weaponized communication, narrative warfare

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