The failed assassination of Donald Trump marks a grim reality no one seems to be acknowledging for a few years now. The internet is a real place that affects our lives in ways we can’t or don’t want to believe. What we say, read and post online shapes our physical reality. I learnt this first hand in 2012 when a Facebook argument with a batchmate led to a physical altercation outside my college. For a decade, foolish folks have been fanning the flames and calling Trump “Literally Hitler” and a fascist threat that needs to be fought.
When Trump decided to run for President in 2015, the shooter was eleven years old. All he’s heard and seen in the last nine years is that Trump will end democracy and that the “other side” is to blame for everything that’s wrong with his country and the world in general. From news channels to social media platforms, all he must have seen is a world where politics REALLY matters and everything is high stakes. From climate doomerism to political fearmongering, this teenager was told this is a world that needs to be fixed. And he clearly acted upon it.
We need to dial down the rhetoric online. We can’t continue like this. At this point, social media is exhausting, manipulative, littered with half-truths at best and a net negative entity. It wasn’t always like this. What started as an edgy way to stay in touch with your friends for teenagers has become the battleground of reality for eight billion people. Governments have been elected and disbanded because of social media campaigns. People have made and lost their careers online. We start and end our days with social media today. The few of us who are truly strong, aren’t on these hellscapes.
But world leaders are. And so is a class of people who are the biggest victims of these websites – journalists. The bar to be a “reporter” has fallen off a cliff and information has been truly democratized. The problem is, that information is no longer vetted and the onus of determining the truth is with the audience. This leads to inevitable fake news that erodes our civilization one wrong headline at a time. All of this is connected. Trump being controversial with his statements and disrespectful in his conduct doesn’t mean he’s a fascist. But politics isn’t about subtlety, it never was.
Right now on Twitter, I can see dozens of posts that claim the attempt was fake and staged to garner sympathy votes for Trump. Previously, victims of school shootings in the USA were deemed to be fake and crisis actors. We are not capable of handling social media and its lasting effects on our society. What happened in Pennsylvania, travelled from the pixel to the podium. Its genesis was online and in newsrooms across the world. When we exaggerate for effect, its impact doesn’t just last till our objective is achieved. You will also see that massaged truth rear its head in the future when you least expect it. The circumstances for this insane event were being cooked for almost a decade.
Assassinations jolt us back to reality. Failed ones show us the possible future. You may not like what you see. The USA was inches away from a major schism that wouldn’t have taken place immediately but would have sent it to a point of no return. Survey after survey has confirmed that Americans are more divided than ever and are reaching the levels of the 1850s.
Why is this important for others? As an Indian, I should be more worried about our bridge collapses and tax-evading politicians than Uncle Sam’s dirty laundry. It’s simple. Our politics is increasingly resembling the American one with its caustic nature and extreme rhetoric – where every election matters and the opposition is the devil incarnate. You can’t keep demonizing your political opponents every election and expect no one to act on it. We need to go back to when politics was mildly boring. It cannot and should not lead our lives and shape our views or worse, our friend circles.
India has had its own experiences with political violence. Like America, we too have lost heads of state. We can’t let extreme statements lay the grounds for dangerous actions by aggrieved parties. Ballots over bullets, or in our context, polls over pistols. For our nation to finally develop, we must persevere to preserve the peace. Dial down the rhetoric and don’t let opinion articles and WhatsApp forwards shape the social fabric of our nation.
Bad things happened even before social media. But they weren’t this fast. Technology is a double-edged sword that propels us to paradise or lays everything to waste. Use it wisely. Understand that everything you say or don’t say online, has consequences. Today it’s the guy you don’t like. Tomorrow it may be someone you do like. What then? Let’s hope we don’t see it played out in real-time.
It’s never that serious. And if it is, you would be anyway wasting time online.
Take care everyone.
Pol Ke Bol! 