Discourse Killer
Ever since I decided a few months ago to start being a bit more vocal about where I sit politically, particularly with regards to President Trump, I have had some…well, interesting exchanges with people on social media.
One favorite was a few weeks ago when I enjoyed (?) some robust back-and-forth with a gentleman on Twitter who insisted that Governor Whitmer here in Michigan had only lifted our COVID-19 “stay at home” order because she knew the rioters protesting it were all left-wing radicals and she didn’t want to see “her people” arrested for violating the order.
In reply to his assertion I posted a link to a story that showed how the decision to lift the order was in the works BEFORE THE RIOTS BEGAN. It was not a biased story written after the fact, claiming she was considering it prior to the riots. No, it was a story WRITTEN BEFORE THE RIOTS by a reputable, long-established news source telling how the order was due to be rescinded any day. In response, he called me a “f****ng liar” and refused to reply to any more of my comments.
Sigh.
I have long believed that when an autopsy is done on the United States of America, the cause of death will be listed as, “Acute failure of the democratic system due to confirmation bias.” At the very heart of “rule of the people” is a hope that the people will examine the options before them, consider them reasonably, and then vote their conscience. But this isn’t what we do anymore in the USA. Confirmation bias has effectively ended all reasonable discourse, and I believe it is killing our Republic.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Confirmation Bias is “the tendency to process information by looking for, or interpreting, information that is consistent with one’s existing beliefs.” In other words, if you believe something you will gravitate towards sources and stories that confirm your belief, and you will dismiss any sources or stories that challenge that belief. The people that agree with you are trustworthy, the people who don’t agree with you are at best mistaken, at worst traitorous enemies.
Now I’m not naive enough to think that confirmation bias a new thing. I’m sure in the 1700’s the Tories and the Rebels had their own news sources that provided the spin they needed to sustain their narrative. But we live in radically different times with radically different challenges. At the top of the list for me is the way cable news, talk radio, and the internet have provided the perfect tools for shoring up our bubbles so that nothing can get through that asks us to think differently. We have millions of dollars being spent on both the left and the right to feed opinion presented as fact directly into our brains at such a rate and volume that we quickly become accustomed to the din of the spin. In fact, it becomes a comfort zone of such agreeability that we grow dependent on it. We need our narrative supported and our opinions emboldened so we can sleep at night knowing our understanding of life, the universe, and everything is the correct one.
But what I find most dangerous is not the tendency of human beings to accept only what they want to be true. I know I’m just as guilty of that as anyone. What I find horrifying is the deeper place of entrenchment where finding agreement is not enough — we also need those who think differently demonized, because what they say confronts the way we understand the world. Again, not a new thing. Check out this campaign illustration from the infamous “Bank War” of 1836, portraying the enemies of President Andrew Jackson as an evil many-headed serpent:
You can even go back further than that. Remember, Jesus himself was accused by the religious leaders of his day of being demonic (Matt. 12:24). It’s so common in human history that whenever someone comes along who challenges our understanding of truth, we don’t just want them proven wrong…we want them discredited, disgraced, and destroyed.
But I would argue we’re at a deeper level of this phenomenon in the United States than ever in our history, and it’s eating us up from the inside in a way that may be impossible to undo. It’s one thing when opinions are debated and we give in to the temptation to demonize the other side, but we are now at a place where even blatant and provable lies are part of the spin cycle, and no one bats an eye. We are told by the spin-masters that we shouldn’t believe what we see with our own eyes. We are told to be suspect of the experts, because they’re obviously being funded by either George Soros or the Koch family.
It reminds me of the old TV show “V.” When evil aliens come to Earth under the guise of friendship, they quickly move to discredit scientists because they know that if anyone will expose the truth, it’s those who by nature question reality and seek to understand it. So they recruit the TV networks and local “support groups” (including an eerie parallel to the “Hitler Youth”) to spread the message that scientists are evil people bent on destroying the good relationship between the “Visitors” and their livestock…er, human friends. When it aired I remember thinking, “How could people turn so gullible so quickly?” Now I understand how.
If the upheaval and unrest of the past couple of months have shown us anything, it’s that more than ever right now we need voices calling us to serious conversation and action. And I don’t hear that coming from Washington. I don’t hear that coming from the White House or Congress. What I hear is more of the echo chamber…telling us who to blame for what’s going on and who needs to be silenced so we can get back to “normal.” And I ask myself, “Who will step up?” And I keep looking around for the answer. And then I ask myself, “Will it make any difference?”
I’m not sure I want the answer to that one.
