The political bubble and how it affects your opinion

[Dill]

(07-25-2019, 09:28 AM)Aquapod770 Wrote: 1) 100% yes. 

2) No. Media is the primary culprit, both social and news media. 

1. Tucker, Laura and Sean would disagree with you. They would admit some bad behavior on the part of Republicans. But the real driver is "the left," which includes establishment Republicans now. Republicans are just responding to left extremism and its politics of personal attack.

I would disagree with them, and even with notion the magnitude is equal. The number one reason for that is we have a president who goes full on personal attack when criticized, whether by the NYT, Chuck Schumer, or a sports figure. Seems that he alone destroys any semblance of equal magnitude. He has called the press "Fake News" and the enemy of the people, mocked a disabled reporter, tweeted all manner of degrading comments about female reporters, and publicly advanced a conspiracy theory about the FBI investigation into Russian influence on the election. He went after the Mexican heritage of a judge who ruled against him, and has vilified Robert Mueller for investigating him. Remember the pictures he tweeted of Melania and Ted Cruz' wife to prove his was better looking? And most recently, of course, told us four Congresswomen of color "hate" America and asked them to go back to the dysfunctional countries they came from.

No president in history has been this nasty to any and everyone who opposes him.  He offers only two options: support him, every day, or become the enemy. But he is not alone. The aforementioned journalists and more at Fox, have aided and abetted this, in books with titles like Liars, Leakers and Liberals.

No doubt if one goes down the rank and file far enough, one might find "left" demonizers as virulent as Trump and Hannity, but I don't see anything like this on the part of Dem political leaders or "left" news commentary in the mainstream press. And it did not begin with Trump. I believe I mentioned the Gingrich memo above from '94, which gives Republican politicians help in defining the other side as traitors and liars.

You know all this, Pod. So I am wondering what you think balances this out, makes the magnitude "100%" equal?  I am not saying no Democrat ever demonizes, I am just saying the magnitude is unequal, by far. Perhaps we mean something different by "demonize"? I am applying the term to depictions of the other side as inherently evil. To have their position on climate change or the national debt or the Iran deal is already a personal attack on DJT and a lie, not loyal opposition grounded in legitimate differences of interest. If Gingrich shows incoming freshmen to congress how to replace ordinary address with terms like "traitor," an attempt to get the whole party doing that, that is an example of demonization. Pointing out that he did it and saying that is a bad thing for the republic is criticizing Gingrich, but not demonizing him. The magnitude of each party's criticism of the other might be 100%, but surely not the magnitude of demonization.

2. "The media" is pretty broad. Social media seems to me more of a platform used by others, if you mean Twitter and Facebook. The problem there is perhaps the creators of the platform profit from division. Is it your view the media "demonizes" to capture audience?, ratings, and profit? If the media were to stop, then the demonization would stop?  Or would existing market demand just throw up another Fox facsimile, making it an effect rather than cause?