There’s been much talk in the Mainstream Media recently about how democracy is under threat from the increasing “Polarization” of society. This Polarization – so the story goes – is caused by Social Media, which creates “bubbles” of largely anonymous individuals who share the same opinions. Isolated in their virtual echo chambers, they have lost the ability to debate calmly and rationally with those who have different opinions, but can only hurl abuse and shout them down.
This threatens democracy, which is based on reasoned adversarial debate to reach a compromise both sides can accept. To save democracy – so the theory goes – governments need the power to control social media, stamp out disinformation and hate speech, and force anonymous individuals to reveal their identities and be held responsible for their crimes.
So far so good, except for one small fly in the ointment which the Mainstream wants to forget. The Polarization began many years before Social Media or the Internet were even a twinkle in their inventor’s eyes. It was government ministers who started it, and the Mainstream Media who have nurtured it ever since.