David Evans :
Recent polls by the Pew Research Center show that the answer to the title question is increasingly “yes.” For members of both political parties. A recent poll found that 70% of Democrats say they are “afraid” of Republicans, and 68% of Republicans say they fear Democrats. We can find some tentative clues in psychology and the history of the United States Federal Communications Commission.
In 1949, the FCC introduced what became known as the Fairness Doctrine. It was a set of rules and regulations guiding broadcast media licensed by the FCC. The Fairness Doctrine required holders of FCC licenses to carry controversial issues, and to offer contrasting viewpoints on those issues.
The idea underlying the regulation was the recognition that the broadcast media are servants of the public, not merely business entities.
But the Fairness Doctrine was overturned by Reagan’s FCC in 1987. That same year, Congress attempted to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, but the legislation was vetoed by President Reagan. On August 4, 1987, Reagan’s FCC finally abolished the Fairness Doctrine.
And less than a year later, on August 1, with all restrictions toward fairness now eliminated, Rush Limbaugh launched his nationally syndicated talk show, fulminating against all his many enemies, including feminists, whom he delighted in calling “femiNazis.’
The rest is history.
One of the things that internet marketers discovered early on was a strong principle of psychology. It turns out that when people are surfing the internet, and have a choice between things to click on, they will overwhelmingly click on the thing that makes them angry or afraid!
This may seem counterintuitive, but in view of our long primate past, it makes perfect sense. We need to be acutely aware of things that anger us or scare us, because we may need to scoot out of their way so that they don’t kill us.
This fact turns out to be a huge advantage for internet marketers. Because the business models of the different social media tie their profit to the number of clicks we make. Since social media have vast amounts of psychometric data on each of us, they know what we’re scared of and what makes us angry.
Algorithms are chunks of code, derived through artificial intelligence, that are placed in social media. They recognize whenever we see something that makes us angry or scared. The algorithm then adds another item to our social media mix about the topic that scared us or made us angry earlier.
Scared and angry again, we click on it.
The algorithm then adds still another item to scare or anger us. We keep clicking.
The algorithm keeps upping the ante, with us getting ever more alarmed. The algorithm is thus fulfilling the business model of getting internet users to keep clicking and making money for the internet site.
But the other consequence of this algorithmic activity is that we users are being manipulated into getting angrier and angrier. People and topics (and, yes, political parties!) that we may have originally felt only mildly negative about, can become real enemies as a result of this algorithmic manipulation.
These algorithmic manipulations create a polarization that infects our language with words like “enemies,” which weaponize our dialogue.
Words have consequences, and a word like “enemies” is like a knife, dividing our country against itself, fulfilling Lincoln’s dire warning, and ripping apart the very fabric of our democracy.
But I believe the situation is not hopeless.
Here are five simple things any of us could do to begin to demagnetize the polarization in our society.
1. Consciously monitor all your thoughts and speech. This will be difficult at first, but there are few better activities to engage in. Would you like to become a better person, and move toward being your best self? Begin by monitoring your thoughts.
2. Avoid watching Fox News at all times. Their business model is based on fomenting anger and division.
3. Avoid using inflammatory words like “enemies” to describe other people. Such words create division. Don’t use any words or phrases that devalue other individuals or groups of people. This isn’t being “politically correct.” It’s simply exercising human decency.
4. Take a kindergarten refresher course. Learn to “play well with others.”
5. Avoid lies and untruth at all times. Truth is the gold standard.
Work to develop a good friendship with someone on the other side politically. Model your friendship on the wonderful relationship that existed between Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Antonin Scalia. They were great personal friends and polar opposites politically. But Ruth Bader Ginzburg praised Scalia and commented warmly on their friendship when she spoke at Scalia’s funeral.
These suggestions aren’t difficult to follow. In fact, they’re really quite simple. But their effect could be profound. If enough of us did them, enough of the time, we could change the world.
(David Evans is an award-winning writer and mediator; EMMY Award (shared) for writing on “The Monkees”; Two Outstanding Case of the Year Awards for The Los Angeles County Court Alternative Dispute Resolution Program).
