There are a lot of highly partisan sites on the internet. That's no surprise; before the internet, there were a lot of highly partisan newspapers and magazines. It's part of the normal history of our country.
One thing that is new today, though, is the very personal hatred that gets displayed over and over on the internet. There have always been people who hated others, what's new is that these people now get to put that hate out there, by themselves, for everyone else to see.
In the 1960s, there were groups who fought civil rights for African Americans, but they were unable to bombard the whole country with their hatred day after day. In the 1980s, there were those who hated Ronald Reagan and everything he did. That dislike was clear in the media, but it never got to the level of blatant hatred in public except when John Hinckley tried to assassinate the president. In the 2000's, more anger was put forward on the internet. We got non-stop portrayals of president Bush as Hitler, but even those were pale compared to today's messages. President Obama was also the target of hate, but most places used one structure or another to keep the worst hate from bursting forward.
Today, however, we have non-stop Trump hatred on the internet. The anti-Trumpers don't just hate the President; they also hate anyone who supports him or even has a kind word to say about him. Sure, there are still the empty-headed politicians who push false stories (like Maxine Waters) to make Trump look bad, but for every moronic Democrat politico, there are hundreds or thousands of angry people on Twitter or Facebook pushing pure hatred. They don't seem to care about the actual facts; truth, in their minds, is relative, not absolute. Nothing that makes the President look good is true. Everything that makes Trump look bad is surely true.
This constant anger is actually a threat to our country and its ability to govern itself. Obama used his anger at the conservatives to justify weaponizing the IRS and the various intelligence agencies to fight the GOP. It's one thing when the president does that, but it's much worse when a whole segment of the population goes in that direction.
Think of the Russia collusion story. There was no collusion; at least, there's no proof of any collusion after a year of searching by nearly every agency in our government. Nevertheless, we still have constant outbursts of anger and charges of treason for non-existent crimes. Most of the angry people don't care about the real facts. They just "know" that Trump must be guilty of something. I bet twenty times a day, I read something about the imminent impeachment of the president, something that will never happen. It doesn't seem to matter; they post this nonsense anyway.
America faces many tough problems, but they will only be solved if we can work together. The anger ginned up on the left, however, is making that impossible. Hopefully, it will die down soon. If not, we may soon see much worse things than angry posts.
One thing that is new today, though, is the very personal hatred that gets displayed over and over on the internet. There have always been people who hated others, what's new is that these people now get to put that hate out there, by themselves, for everyone else to see.
In the 1960s, there were groups who fought civil rights for African Americans, but they were unable to bombard the whole country with their hatred day after day. In the 1980s, there were those who hated Ronald Reagan and everything he did. That dislike was clear in the media, but it never got to the level of blatant hatred in public except when John Hinckley tried to assassinate the president. In the 2000's, more anger was put forward on the internet. We got non-stop portrayals of president Bush as Hitler, but even those were pale compared to today's messages. President Obama was also the target of hate, but most places used one structure or another to keep the worst hate from bursting forward.
Today, however, we have non-stop Trump hatred on the internet. The anti-Trumpers don't just hate the President; they also hate anyone who supports him or even has a kind word to say about him. Sure, there are still the empty-headed politicians who push false stories (like Maxine Waters) to make Trump look bad, but for every moronic Democrat politico, there are hundreds or thousands of angry people on Twitter or Facebook pushing pure hatred. They don't seem to care about the actual facts; truth, in their minds, is relative, not absolute. Nothing that makes the President look good is true. Everything that makes Trump look bad is surely true.
This constant anger is actually a threat to our country and its ability to govern itself. Obama used his anger at the conservatives to justify weaponizing the IRS and the various intelligence agencies to fight the GOP. It's one thing when the president does that, but it's much worse when a whole segment of the population goes in that direction.
Think of the Russia collusion story. There was no collusion; at least, there's no proof of any collusion after a year of searching by nearly every agency in our government. Nevertheless, we still have constant outbursts of anger and charges of treason for non-existent crimes. Most of the angry people don't care about the real facts. They just "know" that Trump must be guilty of something. I bet twenty times a day, I read something about the imminent impeachment of the president, something that will never happen. It doesn't seem to matter; they post this nonsense anyway.
America faces many tough problems, but they will only be solved if we can work together. The anger ginned up on the left, however, is making that impossible. Hopefully, it will die down soon. If not, we may soon see much worse things than angry posts.
No comments:
Post a Comment