Political polarization in the U.S. has reached a dangerous level, with social media platforms promoting misinformation and distrust, leading to extremism and alienation, and a lack of shared experiences between Americans.
Political polarization in the U.S. has reached an alarming level. We have reached the point of fearing an honest conversation.
Most Americans — 61 percent of adults, according to a Pew poll from earlier this year — say talking politics with people they disagree with is now “stressful and frustrating.”
Say what?
We have the best economy in the world. People around the world dream of coming to America. Why can’t we talk about that?
I can go on. We can also talk about how our companies, especially our tech firms, set the standard for innovation. Or about how our music and movies are best-sellers across the globe. Or about how our military is the world's mightiest. Or about how we have the best colleges and universities.
Something is clearly going right in our country. Yet we can’t talk to each other about public affairs?
Harvard Professor Robert Putnam pointed to early warning signs of grudges and grievances silencing talk among Americans in his 2000 book, "Bowling Alone." He noted declining participation in group activities such as going to church, bowling leagues and scouting. Not every American man has to serve in the military.
As a result, Americans today have fewer shared experiences — across generations, races and social classes. The lack of people getting together is the main driver of our political dysfunction.
And now Putnam’s red light is accompanied by sirens due to one added factor — the rise of social media.
What can we do about it?
Pope Francis, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and your faithful correspondent all agree — let’s regulate social media.
Murthy wants to have warning labels attached to all social media sites. It would signal to parents that teens spend 4.8 hours per day on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. The content they see plays on the emotions of young people who are just learning to grapple with their emotions. They swim in a sea of triggers for envy, inadequacy, anger and more.
And they are not talking to each other, playing with each other, learning from each other and from parents, neighbors and teachers. Instead, they’ve got their heads down, staring at their screens.
Social media companies don’t care. They prioritize profit over public good by promoting sensational and divisive content. They fuel feelings of missing out and being left out. They profit from promoting content that gets under the skin of anyone on the opposite side of any political issue or religious belief.
This dynamic leads to extremism. It allows lies, propaganda, pornography and fake videos to take hold. Alienation and anger, even violence become acceptable states of mind.
Look at the social media feeds of mass murderers.
Social media’s viral trends extend to content aired on talk radio, podcasts and cable stations. The social media sites are the building blocks for the canyon-like walls that are creating echo chambers across media platforms. The result is a society in which we are increasingly alienated from our fellow Americans. We meet each other with hostile views formed in those ideological silos.
When was the last time a differing point of view was welcomed on a website, talk radio or cable show designed to excite a far-left or far-right audience? To the contrary, the platforms feed a culture of misinformation and distrust, to the point that they become the new normal.
The political impact of this dynamic is poisonous. Algorithms push people to keep clicking by feeding them more and more tailored, extreme versions of politics, sex and even shopping.
The platforms hide their toxic impact behind claims of free speech. They stoke political anxiety that warning labels could lead to moderation of political content that might amount to censorship of radical views.
The big social media companies don’t say it, but there is also the economic issue.
The U.S.-based companies are in the money-making business. That means they have to stay ahead of foreign social media platforms — think TikTok — that might surpass them in audience if they don’t avoid warning labels and regulations.
But they have facilitated the rise of extreme political movements and fostered a culture of misinformation and distrust.
When the history of Trumpism is written, it will note Trump's use of social media to directly communicate with his supporters, bypassing traditional media channels, as an effective way of undermining democratic norms.
His style of politics has left a lasting impact on all sides, deepening mistrust in institutions and widening the ideological chasm between different groups of Americans.
Trump’s chief White House strategist and influential podcast host Steve Bannon told the crowd at a conservative conference last week, just days before he was to report to jail: “We’re coming after Lisa Monaco, Merrick Garland, the senior members of DOJ that are prosecuting President Trump.”
As General Jim Mattis, who served as Trump’s first secretary of Defense, wrote in his book, Trump “is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try.”
Mattis comes out of a U.S. military culture that values problem solving.
One answer to our political polarization is to adopt the military standard of respect for people as part of America’s team and even when they fall, always as part of the family. Some of that strategy is already taking hold in Congress. Take notice of the bipartisan “For Country Caucus.”
It is a group of 30 members who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, Republicans and Democrats.
“When you're on the battlefield, it doesn't matter what letter comes after your name on a ballot, it's the fact that you all have a direct requirement to help get everybody home safely, execute the mission and deliver something that is worthwhile to be able to help the nation,” said Rep. Zach Nunn (R-Iowa), a member of the caucus.
We need their example more than ever to bring us together.
Juan Williams is an author and a political analyst for Fox News Channel.
