The concept of civil politics as we know it is dead and has been for a while. Do you remember the times when it wasn’t? When people could debate politics without vilifying the other side? I barely do. Civil discussions about politics have been on a sharp decline ever since the start of the Obama era, with almost all the credence given to the rise of social media. It has driven a wedge between both sides and pushed them further and further apart.
The main problem with social media is the algorithms. Yes, I know, big scary buzzword, but it’s real, and it is a huge problem with social media. Apps like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit and so on are constantly tweaking and changing these algorithms to further push different political agendas. Trapping people in their own respective echo chambers, never to be let out. Right now, you’re probably thinking to yourself, “At least I am not in any of these echo chambers.” Sorry to tell you, but if you are not already super conscious of the biases on the internet, you probably are already a victim of these algorithms.
In 2023, through research done by the University of California, it was found that Twitter was purposely showing certain political tweets to people in order to make them upset and angry. They did this because they found that when someone is shown a tweet they extremely disagree with, they tend to stay even longer on the platform, because they then reply to the tweet to argue or they retweet it to get all of their followers to go attack them too, and so on. With people constantly seeing these tweets, it fuels their dislike for the other side even more, pushing the sides further apart.
This isn’t just Twitter, too; this is all social media. All of these platforms are designed for one purpose and one purpose only: to keep you engaged. The side effect of this is that it is separating the left and right more and more, causing people of both sides to hate the other.
The division of politics was not perpetrated by just social media, but by politicians and the elites themselves. If you don’t want your party member to leave for the other side, what do you do? You vilify the opponent and scare your base enough so they never leave. They are stuck with your party because the alternative is evil.
A great real-world example of this was the recent Charlie Kirk assassination. Now, I didn’t like a lot of what Kirk had to say, but do I think he deserved to be brutally murdered in front of millions of people for this? No, I do not. When this happened, the left took this and started to make memes and jokes, almost immediately. A few even celebrated his death. Seemingly forgetting that this was another human being who was just killed, a father, a husband. In the following days, social media was filled with jokes about Kirk and subsequent outrage about his death.
But what did the right do? They immediately started to play the victim card, pretending that Kirk was some saint sent from the heavens. Talking about how terrible, extreme and hateful the entire left is to do such a thing. Condemning all leftists and talking about how they should be stopped at all costs, including violence. Meanwhile, they seem to be forgetting that Kirk was mid-conversation vilifying trans people, falsely claiming that they cause the most mass shootings when he was shot and killed.
What happened to civil discussions about politics? Why is people’s first instinct when it comes to a disagreement, to immediately attack the other person? It is because social media is slowly pushing us further and further apart from each other. These algorithms are designed to seclude us in our own groups, never to leave, and to despise the other side because that is what will keep you on their platform the longest and make them the most money. These social media companies do not care about you, and neither do the elites on either side. They only care about their own advancement, and they will exploit everyday people to get what they want.
So what can be done? How do we stop these social media companies and powerful people from manipulating the entire U.S.? The sad reality is that it would be incredibly difficult, as the only people who could make legislative change wouldn’t, as these algorithms benefit them. Does that mean we are beyond hope? No. The best thing we can do is to take a step back and recognize that every single person on the other side is just another human being. Another human being that has different ideals than you. That does not mean they are evil by any means. We are all only on this planet for a very limited amount of time, and constantly being in a cycle of hate towards the other side is not a way to live. It shouldn’t be left against right; it should be us against these systems that are seeking to divide and control us for their own benefit.
Self-written bio: Jacob Garcia is a software engineering senior at ISU with a minor in political science. He enjoys reading, lifting and hanging out with friends in his free time.
