JGW said that he doesn't believe it's the hate speech so much as the fear peddling. I think he's partly right.
Fear, uncertainty and doubt, also known colloquially as "FUD" are the seeds of hate. We hate what we fear.
I fear that you will take my job away, I am uncertain about my future security, and I doubt that you have good intentions for me and my loved ones. Where else can one go after that?
See, these media whores figured out long ago that direct hate speech is considered the province of lunatics, and that it is much more effective to sow FEAR instead, and let the hate sprout organically and grow free range amongst the faithful. Sometimes the shortest distance between two points is NOT a straight line.
As for what to do about the civility of discourse, I don't think it is so much the lack of civility alone that troubles us, it is the lack of civility together with the sowing of FEAR and FUD which is proving to be the deadly chemical combination which has found a direct route to the collective limbic system of our right wingers and, to a very real extent, to our extremist libs as well.
The problem has more to do with the WAY our discourse is controlled, and that's intentional. The Hegelian Dialectic and the Delphi Technique are not only effective psyops, they're ratings monsters. Imagine a 24/7 train wreck with a heaping helping of NASCAR's Best Crashes...you just can't turn away, can ya Uncle Cooter?
If we could return to the days when it was more important to foster an UNDERSTANDING of the issues instead of figuring out how many were FOR or AGAINST them, we'd have a healthy start.
And unfortunately, such an approach is totally unacceptable to the plutocrats who represent the power base.
Sure enough, after a modicum of soul searching and impartial research, the spotlight would inevitably wind up pointed at them. And they just can't have that, can't allow it, which is why instead we have a nonstop parade of "paper or plastic, Coke or Pepsi, you're either with us or against us".
Keeps us fighting, keeps us divided, keeps them out danger, an all around winner of a formula.
