Fear & Hate: A Division Strategy

The overconsumption of fear and hate in the news and on social media has me questioning my reality on the daily. So much so, that I’m up at 4am on a Friday morning typing this blog post.

I couldn’t sleep anymore. The thoughts ruminating in my head about what I’ve seen on my friend’s and family’s social media; the slanted bias of information on the news; the expression of pure hate from people I consider friends. It is appalling and frankly a little too much for my sensitive soul to handle.

There once was a time when news came in waves; you could only read a newspaper or watch your morning news show for your source of information. Back then, I feel like journalism was taken more seriously, like fact checking was a thing and the misinformation was far less than what it is today. Remember when newspapers would publish retractions or edits? But now, “news” is everywhere, contorted and adapted by any Tom, Dick or Harry with a laptop or a phone. News media outlets employ thousands of “writers” to create attention-grabbing quips to get the most clicks and now news has become a competition of views, not fact-checked journalism.

What bothers me the most is the way we all feed into it, myself included. The catchy headlines of despair and drama; the extreme left or right slant on stories; the lies, deceit and misinformation created and passed on by retweets, shares and forwards. It is exhausting to my brain and my psyche. The overwhelming amount of people who engage in unchecked propaganda is mind-blowing. But I don’t blame them because where can you fact check anyway? There is so much information out there, 80% of which I would say is garbage.

But what I’d like to point out is that this is the goal of the media: its not about facts and reporting the news; it’s about creating division among friends, choosing sides, pointing the finger, and who’s right and who’s wrong. When they divide us, they control us. Plain and simple. And that’s what they want. When we are divided, we are isolated. When we are isolated, we rely on them. When we rely on them, they control us. Control is the root of all of it.

If you find yourself spewing messages of hate towards one side or the other, think about who you are as a person. Do hate messages and ill wishes towards another person resonate with who you are? Are you really hateful and spiteful? Or are you being controlled? Are you being inspired to hate because of something you read from an unreputable source?

What is a reputable source, anyway? Does such a thing exist?

I feel helpless and hopeless about the state of the world. I feel like we’ve lost sight of what really matters: community and caring for one another. I feel like we’ve all turned against each other, and for what? To be “right” about a political topic we have zero actual knowledge of? To be able to say, “you’re wrong, and I now hate you for it” (unfriend, unfollow, block)? Is that what we’ve reduced ourselves to?

I refuse to live in fear of what will be. I refuse to believe everything I hear, read or watch in its entirety. I choose to believe that the truth lies somewhere in the middle, in the gray between black and white. I choose love and respect, even if I disagree with others. I choose to be present and live in the moment, not concede to the control of the media or the talking heads of the world. And I hope you do too, for your sake and the sake of all who love you.