At Each Other’s Throats

They have us just where they want us.

Here is my simple proposition: if we are to survive, first as a country, then, as a species on this planet, we must find a way to remove our hands from each other’s throats.

Somehow, and I admit that I do not have an answer here, we must find our way to the realization that we are being manipulated for purposes of financial or political gain by powerful people and institutions who profit from our engagement in the hate-filled, no-win war they have foisted upon us.

It’s now a fairly well known fact that the media industry, particularly the socials, thrive—like a Star Trek villain—on negative emotions. They gin up their algorithms to feed us more and more of the stuff that we respond negatively to because negative engagement is their Gold Standard. A thumbs down, frown emoji, or negative comment wins you a flood of hormones that create an addictive experience, ensuring you will continue down that rabbit hole.

We chase that rabbit for reasons of race, ethnicity, and our desire to feel that we’re not the bottom rung on a social, economic, or cultural ladder. But mostly we do so because we are instructed to at every turn. Some of these instructions are delivered blatantly, like White supremacists in Charlottesville chanting “Jews will not replace us.”  Some are delivered surreptitiously, like “law and order,” which is a coded shot at people of color, or “welfare queen,” meaning the Black women they love to demean as “takers not makers,” or “globalists” which obliquely refers to the never-loses-its-appeal lie that Jews, at a whopping 0.2% of the world’s population, run the show.

Lately, the previously coded dog-whistles about race and antisemitism have moved into the human range of hearing, and we hear them loud and clear.

Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump have made fools of us all by playing the tune that we can’t help dancing too. Murdock, for fifty-plus years, via his democracy-crushing media empire that includes the American publications The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post; England’s The Times of London, and The Sun (a previous scandal forced him to shutter his News Of The World tabloid there); and his native Australia’s Daily Telegraph. Then of course come the crown jewels, Sky News in Europe, and Fox News in America. He has managed to turn hate, lies, and divisive rhetoric into billions of dollars in profit.

Trump, by virtue of his celebrity, managed at first to rally normal conservatives, and every day Americans who for years faithfully watched “The Apprentice” every week. By this writing, a minimum of 70% of Americans have seen through the Trump veneer and recognize the damaged quality of his insatiable ego. Beginning with the stolen election lies that were 100% supported by Fox News (which, court documents show they knew to be lies), he has raised at least  $200 million. An act that in itself may be illegal, since you can’t raise money on a story you know to be false. Estimates are that he’s raised about $5 million in the days since he was indicted.

When Trump came down that escalator to announce his presidential aspirations by demeaning Mexicans as rapists and murderers, he wasn’t taken seriously. Back then, calling him out for his fascist inclinations was a quick conversation killer. Now, as the dictionary definition of fascism—“an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization”—is better understood, it’s become a conversation starter.

Omar Aziz, in the LA Times, recently wrote about his graduate studies as a Radcliffe Fellow interested in the appeal of fascism: “The reach of these men has been exponentially expanded by algorithms and social media platforms, geared toward outrage and excitement. The Fascists of the 20th century could only dream of such easy propaganda tools. The fight ahead will not be easy. It will require a generation doing its best to push back against fascism and reinvigorate democracy, this time at home. The Nazis marching through Harvard Square are a reminder that fascism is here. We ignore it at our own peril.”

The National Institutes of Health (commonly known as the NIH), our government’s clearinghouse of medical research, recently published a particularly disheartening study on the prevalence and effect of negative online speech. It even raised eyebrows at Reason Magazine. The libertarian periodical ran this recent cover story: “U.S. Headlines Expressing Anger, Fear, Disgust, and Sadness Increased Hugely Since 2000.” The sub-headline was true, and equally disheartening: “Meanwhile more and more Americans say that they are avoiding news coverage.” As the above chart illustrates, joy and even neutral feelings were shown to be in marked decline.

The next round of this perpetual, artificially motivated fight is always underway. It’s burning through our world, turning families and countries against one another. It’s promoters hope we never remove our hands from each other’s throats.  

©2023 Jon Sinton