Social media has turned politics into a competitive slagging match
The style and substance of political discourse is turning nasty. Why don't we try some empathy?
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Your support makes all the difference.Why is political language turning so ugly? In commentary and in the daily air war between opponents there seem to be fewer limits to what we can accuse other people of. Fox news say President Obama is a ‘pussy’, while the Mayor of Philadelphia calls Donald Trump an ‘asshole’. But it’s not just the style of politics that is turning nasty but the substance. Trump, again of course, is called a 'Nazi' and Isis are labelled as 'fascists'. Neither label are historically or theoretically correct but who gives one? In the Labour party, to some narrower minds, if you back Jeremy Corbyn you are a Trot and if you don’t you are a Tory. What’s going on?
At one level it is the unwinding of decades of decorum and deference. Politics was the practice of well bred gentlemen who played by polite public school boy rules and the rest of us knew our place. But that bubble burst long ago and now more of us have a say than ever before. The internet and social media both help and hinder; Twitter means everyone with a smart phone is now a broadcaster and can say what they want to anyone they want. It democratises the chance for a variety of voices to be heard, but of course the more extreme you are, the more followers you will get.
Social media can also widen your scope of thinking or narrow it and twist it. You can live life in an echo chamber of certainty and build yourself up into a furry of foul language against anyone who just doesn’t ‘get it’ or you can search for any opposing view to your own in an instant and understand what motivates the behaviour and thinking of people you don’t necessarily agree with.
Call me a 'tosser' if you want but I don’t learn anything from listening to my own voice or people who agree with me. I learn from people who hold different views from me. It is from challenge and difference that we learn. There is always at least a grain of truth in anyone’s argument and if you don’t grapple with it your own position will always be weak.
Empathy not hate or fury is the real currency of political discourse. ‘Othering’ your opponent is a cheap short cut to a headline but rarely makes any big or lasting change. What is wrong is rarely if ever the fault of a single person – but a system. And I’m not convinced you can build a good society by treating others badly.
This doesn’t mean we don’t practice our politics with passion, commitment and belief. It does mean we need do it with generosity, empathy and respect. We can prefigure the world we want to live in by practicing it now. There aren’t good people or bad. There are just people, who like you and me, get things right and wrong and can learn and change. I swear by it.
Neal Lawson is chair of the good society pressure group Compass
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