It seems to me that much of the growing antipathy in the nation is borne from irrational fear of anyone who disagrees with someone else's beliefs. This applies to the fear of 'black thugs' by 'white people,' apostates by believers, conservatives by liberals, etc. The fear ranges across all dimensions of needs and desires: life, health, wealth, liberty, security, family, lifestyle, power, heritage, etc.
I think if people were thinking rationally we wouldn't have this frenzied maelstrom. But once triggered, an irrational response is immune from rational engagement. I fear we now have hundreds of millions of people around the world caught in this irrational 'avalanche' racing towards some apocalypse. Isn't that what caused the world wars, genocides, atrocities?
How do you reason with the unreasonable? Ideologues, bigots, idiots, ultra-partisans? There are only a few of them and their numbers could be offset by the mostly sane. But what if the media has the power to convert the sane into the insane? Reasonable into unreasonable? Exaggerating threats, impacts, causes, effects for profit or power; exploiting human tendencies to overreact, disproportionate response or simply intellectually lazy evaluation?
Is the media the difference? Four TV channels and one newspaper attenuated the news to what could fit, sell advertising motivated by simple commerce and meet broadcast standards. But now echo chambers have replaced journalism.
Are we teaching kids how to consume media? We have restrictions on porn - is this 'news porn?'
