The Decline of Deliberative Democracy: Easier to Delete than Debate

[Karmadillo]

http://www.sllf.org/the-decline-of-deliberative-democracy-easier-to-delete-than-debate/

By Thomas H. Little, Ph.D.

Several years ago, I established a Facebook account so that I could communicate with the college students I teach on their medium. While the students have moved on to Twitter, Instagram and other cooler modes of communication, I am still stuck on Facebook, mostly to keep in touch with friends and family, but also, I hope, to engage in spirited political debate.

Several weeks ago, my two “Facebook worlds” collided as I began to engage a cousin in what I thought was a friendly debate. After a few such debates, however, I was informed that he was unfriending me and four other people because he found it “easier to delete than debate.” It seems that he had no interest in exploring, considering or even hearing a perspective different from his own. Indeed, in his last message before cutting the cord, my cousin indicated that he was tired of my efforts to force my “indoctrination on him and his friends.”

After recovering from the shock of losing a friend (okay, not really), I realized that my cousin was reflecting perhaps the saddest trend in modern politics: it is indeed easier to delete than debate. Surrounding ourselves with “friends,” websites and media outlets that echo the things, accurate or not, that we already believe, we have no interest in exposing ourselves to ideas, facts or narratives that don’t fit our pre-conceived view of the world. Rather than exposing ourselves to ideas that might indicate we are not correct one hundred percent of the time, we prefer to wrap ourselves in a cocoon of information and friends who agree with us, assuring us that we are indeed always correct and the other side is always wrong. The late US Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously said, “Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not to their own facts.” In today’s world of social networks and media bias, people seem to be entitled to their own facts as well.

This might not be too bad (and perhaps not as revolutionary as I think) if it were limited to the masses. However, all you have to do is watch MSNBC or Fox News to find out that policymakers are as segregated as the voters who support them (hmm, I wonder if there is a connection there?!). Conservative policymakers listen to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, cite data from RedState and The Heritage Foundation and speak to us through Fox News. Liberal policy makers listen to Rachel Maddow and Al Sharpton, cite information gathered by Huffington Post and Daily Kos and seldom appear on news shows that don’t reflect their views. I read last week that Chuck Todd admitted not asking some Republicans tougher questions for fear they would never return to “Meet the Press” if he did.

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[Octafish]

1. ''Where there is no vision, the people perish.''

Which seems to be the idea.

"It seems that he had no interest in exploring, considering or even hearing a perspective different from his own."

And some wonder why the rich keep getting richer and the wars go on for ever.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

2. When did you (the reader, not the OP) last listen respectfully to a right-winger? N.T.