Troubled by Trump's use of the phrase "human scum," I decided to trace its usage, over the years...

... in the NYT archive. Not "scum" alone, but "human scum," the 2 words together, which struck me as particularly ugly. I searched, and I read every appearance of "human scum" in the NYT. I summarize everything below, but I'll give you the short answer here. The epithet rarely appeared until 2003, when it began coming up repeatedly in statements from the North Korean government. The first person called "human scum" by the North Koreans was John Bolton. Bolton — who was undersecretary of state for arms control in 2003— became Trump's national security adviser and was ousted last month.

But let's go back to the beginning. The oldest use of "human scum" in the NYT came in the July 23, 1897 issue:



Stunningly racist. I learned a new word: Kanaka. And I learned that my not knowing the word reveals my unfamiliarity with the book "Two Years Before the Mast."

The phrase, "human scum," does not appear again in the NYT until June 13, 1920, in "A Fearless and Revealing Analysis of Conditions and Personalities in the Bolshevist Regime by a Man Who Has Been a Prisoner of Trotzky's."

On August 25, 1931, the phrase came up in a long article about rampant crime in NYC.



On March 12, 1938, the phrase came up in an article about a trial in the Soviet Union. "This is a stinking pile of human scum, who stop at nothing," the prosecutor argued.

All of World War II passes before "human scum" appears again in the NYT. Then, on December 2, 1945, we get "'So What?' Say the Germans of Nuremberg; Despite the evidence, their attitude toward the war crimes trial is one of indifference":



9 more years pass, and we get another translation from a Soviet trial: "Accursed vipers, foul dogs, a stinking heap of human scum."

In 1958, we get a bad review of the James Jones novel, "Some Came Running." Some of the characters —  "bar flies and amateur prostitutes" — are "human scum." (I guess "amateur prostitutes" is like "jumbo shrimp.")

In 1960, "ARGENTINA COOLS TO FORMER NAZIS; Anger on Eichmann Seizure Turning to Criticism Over Protecting 'Criminals.'" The Argentine newspaper referred to the Nazis who had taken refuge there as "human scum."

In 1968, there is "MEMPHIS STRIKE SEEN AS U.S. TEST; Rustin Calls It First Step of New Stage in Rights Drive":



More than 2 decades pass before we see this ugly phrase again in the pages of the NYT. It's in a review of the 1993 movie, "Falling Down":



There's a second 1993 article, "Dear Camcorder Diary: Memoirs From All Over," a review of a Showtime special called "Self-Portraits":



In April 2001, there's a brief comic item on how to "Ruin Someone Else's Movie-Going Experience at a 'Star Trek' Film." You're advised to go as a character and say something like, "Yes, I am Commander K'Ching, you human scum! What do you want!"

If you thought the phrase would live on only in entertainment and foolery. You are so wrong. The next phase in the life of the epithet is all about North Korea:

In 2003, there's a North Korean insult directed at John R. Bolton (who was undersecretary of state for arms control):

Characterizing Mr. Bolton as "human scum and bloodsucker," the spokesman said his government had "decided not to deal with him or consider him as an official of the U.S. administration."

I'm seeing that insult repeated in 4 more articles. Then, in a 5th article, "Latest Threats May Mean North Korea Wants to Talk" (November 19, 2008), we see:

North Korea... called [South Korean President Lee Myung-bak] “despicable human scum,” an epithet it had previously reserved for John R. Bolton, Washington’s hard-line strategist during Mr. Bush’s first term.

There's a 2010 article in which North Korea calls someone else "human scum" (a defector, Hwang Jang-yop).

There's a 2011 article, "Reading Between North Korea's Lines":

U.S. forces based in the South and South Korean politicians, especially President Lee Myung-bak, come in for especially florid disdain: They are “swollen-headed traitors,” “half-baked extra-large Philistines,” “wicked running dogs” and “loud-mouthed gangsters.”

Former President George W. Bush of the United States was regularly called “vile human scum.” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has been derided as “the little schoolgirl.”

“The language is unbelievably rude and tough, far more aggressive than the Soviet Union under Stalin, and far superior to Mao’s China,” said Andrei Lankov, a leading North Korea analyst and a history professor at Kookmin University in Seoul. “North Korea, they’re the world champions.”

Official public language in North Korea is “a rhetoric of superlatives, of extreme and unflagging hyperbole, and propaganda is delivered in a loud, emotional style,” said Brian R. Myers, a professor of international studies at Dongseo University in Pusan and author of “The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why It Matters.”

In 2012:

North Korea always bristles at any outside criticism of its leadership and often counters with sharp language. It has labeled various American and South Korean leaders “human scum,” “war maniacs” and “running dogs.” It once called Mrs. Clinton a “minister in a skirt.”

Later that year:

North Korea news media have frequently referred to the defectors as “traitors” and “human scum.”

In 2013:

The country [North Korea]... deemed various senior American and South Korean officials to be “human scum,” “war maniacs” and “running dogs.”

Again, in 2013:

North Korea denies keeping political prisoners or violating human rights. In the past week, it has called the commission’s work “an interference with internal affairs” and “slander and provocation.” It also called North Korean witnesses before the commission “human scum” who were manipulated by the South Korean authorities.

Next, "North Korean Execution Raises Unease in China" (December 13, 2013):

K.C.N.A. called Mr. Jang “a traitor to the nation for all ages” and said he “perpetrated anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional acts” in an effort to overthrow North Korea’s leadership. The state news outlet called him “despicable human scum” and “worse than a dog.”

3 days later:

[South Korean] President Park Geun-hye... warned that the North might attempt armed provocations after the recent purge and execution of Jang Song-thaek, who was believed to have been the North’s second most powerful official....

The court verdict condemned Mr. Jang as “human scum” and “worse than a dog,” citing among many other offenses his purported failure to applaud as enthusiastically as others did during a 2010 meeting at which Mr. Kim was elected to a party post.

A break from all that North Korean use of the term finally comes with this South Korean use (in 2014):

One of the angry comments received by the Defense Ministry was from a man who said he was considering helping his son avoid military service with surgery to deliberately damage a knee or other body part and make him medically unfit, as some young men have been known to do. That would be far better, the commenter said, than “having him killed like a dog by human scum in the military.”

Later that year, we're back to North Korea, with "United Nations Security Council Examines North Korea’s Human Rights":

The report was based on interviews with North Korean exiles, whom the North Koreans described in a letter to the United Nations as “human scum.”

In 2015, "‘North Korea Confidential’ and ‘North Korea Undercover’":

On Dec. 12, 2013, two years after Kim took office, Jang, 67, was probably executed by firing squad, his death described in the official media as befitting “human scum,” a man who was “worse than a dog.” There were rumors that he was actually thrown to a pack of attack dogs; these were later discounted....

There's a repeated reference to the insult against Jang in 2016. Later that year, North Korea called a defecting diplomat "human scum." Another article repeats that insult.

In 2017, North Korea speaks of a "hideous terrorist group" sent by South Korea and the C.I.A. to kill Kim Jong Un. It calls the would-be assassin "human scum." Another article that year says:

North Korea used to call defectors “traitors” or “human scum.”

But since the North’s young leader, Kim Jong-un, took power in 2011, at least 25 defectors have resurfaced, claiming that they returned voluntarily, fed up with life in the South.

In 2018, there's "North Korea Signals It Might Hold Military Parade on Eve of Olympics":

North Korea... lashed out, calling the Games’ conservative critics in the South “human scum” and accusing them of “unpardonable atrocities.”

Later that year, we get a reminder that John Bolton — now chosen to be national security adviser — was once called "a human scum and bloodsucker" by the North Koreans. Two other 2018 articles about Bolton repeat the old insult.

There's another article about a North Korean defector:

North Korea’s state media called Mr. Thae “human scum” and said he was hurling “mud at the dignity of the supreme leadership” of the North.

The insult to Thae appears again.

Finally, in October 2018, we get out of Korea, with "Yuki Kawauchi Is Distance Running’s Elite Oddball," dateline, Kuki, Japan:

In high school, he broke down with shin splints and sore knees from overtraining. Dispirited, left to carry bags and water for his teammates, he told Runner’s World magazine that he wrote in his diary, “What am I? Human scum?”

One disconsolate teenager questions his worth. So refreshing!

And then it's back to John Bolton, with "John Bolton Says North Korean Missile Tests Violated U.N. Resolutions" (May 24, 2019):

“Having many years ago been called ‘human scum’ by the North Koreans,” Mr. Bolton said, “I take much of what they say with a grain of salt.”

And then, there was "North Korean Envoy Hails Bolton’s Ouster and Trump’s Talk of a New Approach" (September 20, 2019):

North Korea, which has called Mr. Bolton a “war maniac” and “human scum” at various times, was particularly incensed when he championed the so-called Libyan model of forcing North Korea to quickly give up and ship out its nuclear arsenal before granting the country any rewards.

And that's the last one — I counted them all! — before we get to yesterday's usage by the President of the United States. From "Republican Lawmakers Storm Hearing Room, Disrupt Trump Impeachment Inquiry":

Trump on Monday told reporters that "Republicans have to get tougher and fight" the impeachment, saying the Democrats are "vicious and they stick together."

Trump also criticized his Republican critics on Twitter, writing: "The Never Trumper Republicans, though on respirators with not many left, are in certain ways worse and more dangerous for our Country than the Do Nothing Democrats. Watch out for them, they are human scum!"

Trump's tweet — "They are human scum" — is repeated in "GOP Stands by Trump, Gingerly, After Diplomat's Testimony" and the editorial, "Why Did Republicans Storm the Capitol? They’re Running Out of Options/As more testimony is disclosed, it becomes clearer that President Trump’s only defense against impeachment is to distract from the facts."

I don't know where Trump got "human scum." Maybe it's common New York street talk (though it's only evinced in the NYT in 1931). But it's hard not to think he picked it up from all that nasty North Korean propaganda. I didn't like his using the term, which feels so ugly and dehumanizing. But now that I see it as North Korean government talk, I like it even less.

Do you think of "human scum" as meaning scum that is human or scum that came from a human? I see the OED defines "scum" as "A film or layer of floating matter formed upon the surface of a liquid in a state of fermentation, ebullition, etc.; hence, a film formed upon stagnant, foul water, etc. More generally, any undesirable surface layer or deposit, usually but not necessarily on a liquid." And: "coarse slang (chiefly U.S.). Semen." What then is the effect of adding "human"? To me, it makes it seem more as though you are referring to semen.

I do think, however, that one might choose to say "scum" (or "human scum") to avoid saying "shit." And I see that Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice just called Lindsey Graham a "piece of shit": "He's been a piece of shit. I said it. I said it, damn it. He's a piece of shit."

Should Trump temper his remarks when Susan Rice is saying something worse? Should Trump switch to "piece of shit" since "human scum" is so North Korean?