Raising hell?

Reader question:

Please explain “raised hell” in this headline: Binge-drinking brother who ‘raised hell’ in Plymouth pub avoids jail.

My comments:

Binge-drinking means the guy had a lot to drink. He probably got drunk and did what a regular drunkard often does, losing control, throwing tantrums, getting into loud arguments with fellow drinkers, perhaps smashing a few beer mugs, throwing a chair or two and generally making an ugly scene.

A very ugly scene, I mean, a very noisy and ugly scene.

Which led to the man’s arrest and trial – which ended with a lenient judge allowing him to walk out of court scot-free.

Perhaps this is the man’s very first brush with the law, which helped. Perhaps he showed genuine remorse, which helped also. Perhaps the judge just took pity on him, which definitely helped.

The long and short of it is, he was fortunate to have avoided jail.

All of this is speculation, of course because we’re not given all the details of the story. However, what we can be sure of is that a lot of noise and trouble was caused by this man because he’s being described as having “raised hell”.

Hell, as in hell and high water. Hell, as in heaven and hell. Hell, as in hellfire.

Picture the infernal flames of hell.

See?

Raising hell is raising or creating the kind of trouble or disturbance so bad that it evokes images of hell.

“Raising hell”, in short, is the expression to use when we want to describe a really bad behavior, I mean, really bad, like extremely unrestrained, disruptive and disturbing behavior.

Disturbing, as in disturbing peace.

Use this expression sparingly, though. Hell being hell, it is not a word to employ without exercising restraint.

Hell, after all, is hell.

All right, let’s read a few media examples for a better feel for what it’s like for people to raise hell:

1. A white supremacist seeking to turn a North Dakota town into a “white enclave” has been arrested and charged with terrorising residents.

Craig Cobb, 62, who has stated his ambition to turn Leith into a haven for neo-Nazis, is being held without bond after residents complained that Cobb and another man had been lingering outside their properties armed with rifles.

Both Cobb and Kynan Dutton, 29, have been charged with seven counts of terrorizing Leith residents, the Bismarck Tribune reported. Five of the counts carry mandatory minimum sentences of two years in jail.

The arrests come after two years of uncertainty for the tiny town of Leith, which has just 24 residents and covers little more than a square mile in the south-west of North Dakota.

Cobb, who is wanted in Canada for allegedly promoting hate material online, started buying up plots of land in 2011 and has since acquired 13 in total. His ultimate aim is to create a “White Nationalist intentional community in North Dakota”, drawing racists from across the US to the town.

Current residents have been seeking to thwart his bid by introducing new laws which require Cobb to bring his properties up to a certain living standard. Cobb has complained that locals are unlawfully attempting to drive him from the town.

Residents told the Bismarck Tribune that Cobb and Dutton had patrolled Leith armed with rifles on Friday and Saturday. Five people were reportedly confronted by the pair.

Leith mayor Ryan Schock told the Southern Poverty Law Center that Cobb had been “raising hell” with a rifle.

“He was going up to people’s vehicles and hollering at them, anyone that was walking up the street, telling them to get the hell out of town,” Schock said.

- North Dakota white supremacist charged with terrorising residents, TheGuardian.com, November 20, 2013.

2. Incendiary rhetoric has no place in civil discourse, so say progressives eager to erase Tucker Carlson from the Fox News lineup.

They share similar arguments against former President Donald Trump, saying his election denials sparked the so-called “insurrection” on Jan. 6, 2021.

And yet when a progressive propagandist pours fire on the culture war flames the same voices go quiet.

That extends to TBS, the network supporting the basement-rated “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.”

Bee’s latest late night screed, and she boasts a sizable history of embarrassing rants, could lead to real-world violence.

That’s not hyperbole.

Not only did Bee demand progressives “raise hell” following Roe v. Wade’s demise they must take their activism one ghastly step further.

When they spot Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the court opinion in question they must get in his face.

Here’s the exact quote:

“And we have to raise hell in our cities, in Washington, in every restaurant Justice Alito eats at for the rest of his life, because if Republicans have made our lives hell, it’s time to return the favor.”

Can you imagine the cultural landscape if Bee’s advice bled into real life? Picture every Republican in the country unable to move about for fear of being harassed, stalked or even assaulted in public.

That’s “living hell,” right?

- TBS Has No Comment on Samantha Bee’s Incendiary Rant (Again), HollywoodInToto.com, June 28, 2022.

3. Congressman Tom McClintock took credit for postponing Yosemite’s reservation system at a recent Business Council Luncheon, according to a video by MyMotherLode.com.

In the video, McClintock said the National Park Service “was about to go ahead and reimpose that reservation system,” – but he says he “raised hell with the White House, and they’re now backing off – at least for the moment.”

During the luncheon, he called Yosemite’s reservation system “damaging” to visitation and its gateway communities. However, according to the park’s Visitor Use Data, visitation was not affected by the reservation system during the summers of 2020 through 2022, nor in 2024 while it was in effect.

However, regardless of opinion, McClintock says park staff have told him that they have “guaranteed lower visitation this summer as a result of the situation that has evolved” due in part “to a lack of reservation system clarity.”

He says hotel staff have told him that they are “literally thousands of rooms behind in summer bookings as a result of the uncertainty visitors have about if they will need a reservation to come to Yosemite.”

McClintock says that the decision needs to be made now to ensure potential visitors do not turn to alternative plans.

However, due to the current lack of hotel bookings and the fact that “we are already so far into the season,” he believes that need can only be remedied by not implementing a reservation system this year.

- McClintock says Yosemite’s reservation system stalled because he ‘raised hell’, YourCentralValley.com, April 4, 2025.

本文仅代表作者本人观点，与本网立场无关。欢迎大家讨论学术问题，尊重他人，禁止人身攻击和发布一切违反国家现行法律法规的内容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：张欣）