The sad reality is that we now crave radicalism … or at least embrace it.
Far too many have become desensitized and radicalized. Far too much of what now gets posted online is deemed acceptable behaviour. This weaponization of political hatred from all sides of the spectrum may be the biggest threat to democracy.
The problem isn’t the macabre curiosity about whether the sympathy this creates will help Donald Trump, who just sealed a U.S. presidential victory over the seemingly addled Democrat choice, current President Joe Biden, in November.
Politics was a relentlessly unkind business, even before Trump came along.
Those embracing such sentiments would be well served to observe the old warning from Confuscius: “Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.”
Or perhaps they should simply observe the much newer social media warning: “Think before you post.” It’s mind-boggling how many don’t. They still don’t quite seem to get the problems they’re creating for themselves — not to mention society as a whole.
Such posts were few, but in today’s all-it-takes-is-one social media world, the grand irony is that what was thought in the moment to be clever, funny or edgy will be exceedingly helpful to political enemies.
The even greater irony is that no single person in today’s democratic society has done more to promote and exploit such divisions and political hatred than Donald Trump.
When it comes to weaponizing political animosity, Trump has clearly become the standard bearer. Just observe the others in politics — in his own country and now ours — who are clearly emulating his formula for success.
Those who oppose Trump — or even those who simply want to see things in politics return to some semblance of civility and decency — should realize they can’t win this battle with what-about-ism. They surely should realize they can’t win by attempting to justify what almost happened on Saturday.
For this, we have only ourselves to blame. We pretend we don’t, but we crave radicalism in our politics, which not only permits this kind of stupidity but also feasts upon it.
But while he may have started it all, the vicious reaction to the attempt on his life from some of his political enemies shows how others have embraced it.
Alas, social media has made this all too permissible.
Unproven facts were once considered political gossip and treated with distain. Today, legacy media is chastised for not blindly repeating it. Evidently, we are now deemed incompetent for not promoting social media conspiracies that the shooting was devised by Republicans to create sympathy for Trump.
Almost anything goes — as long as it feeds the narrative of your liking.
Judging by reaction to Trump’s shooting on social media platforms, our politics continues to rapidly spiral.
Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
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