The insult is usually not criticized if it comes from like-minded politicians. Being perceived as someone who is tough or who does not always follow the rules, including those of education, does not take its toll in the short term. In the long run, polarization freezes the mood, which benefits ideological majority positions because then it doesn’t matter if it’s managed well or badly
The most serious threats to democracies always begin with the degradation of political language. If the words of MPs were to serve to inspire citizens and convey their voices to parliaments, their interventions should have no room for the exchange of personal insults or harsh outbursts more typical of bar discussions. We’ve seen and heard it this week with Vox’s macho attacks on Irene Montero and accusations by the Equality Minister himself against the PP of promoting “rape culture.” They are not distant problems.
In this last legislature, we have witnessed an escalation of tension, with personal disqualifications being a constant in the Regional Assembly and in the plenary sessions of the two main municipal councils. Faced with the argumentative force of ideas sliding down the drain, populist rhetoric is making its way seeking citizens’ attention through the media and social networks. Often at the cost of crossing the boundaries of personal respect for the opponent. “The lower they fall, the higher we rise,” said Michelle Obama in 2016 in response to Trump’s insults.
That attitude did not last long for the relentless Republican offensive. Unfortunately, both in the United States and here, rude behavior towards a rival is sometimes interpreted as a sign that a politician is “tough” on his speech. Being perceived as someone who doesn’t follow the rules, even the most minimal rules of education, can even come out electorally in certain environments. “I’m going to vote for the crazy one,” I heard him say once.
In the age of populist narratives, where both simple and fallacious answers are offered to complex problems, there is nothing simpler than the cognitive shortcut that stands for insults and personal disqualification. The persistence of these political ways is not trivial, for mutual tolerance, the recognition that rivals have a right to exist and compete for power, is one of the guardrails of democracy, as Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt pointed out in their well-known work ‘How Democracies Die’.
One of the great social problems of our time is that people are becoming increasingly isolated from people with different political views. A segregation that increases polarization and hinders effective governance. Citizens not only tend to socialize with like-minded people. In many cases, they do so with those who hold the most radical views in similar positions, a penchant for extremes that Harvard professor Amit Goldenberg calls “political acrophilia.”
Therefore, the insult is usually never criticized when they are part of like-minded politicians. On the contrary, those crimes that pollute and humiliate the debate in democratic institutions are applauded by the militants on social networks, where they come out of their lethargy and mobilize. It doesn’t matter if the discussion is about a relevant state issue or about a trivial topic like Christmas lights in the city. In some countries, more than in others, authentic lynchings are woven against politicians, but also against journalists, as we see every day in Spain from the radical formations of the left and the right.
In some cases, these “hunts” take on particular gravity when orchestrated from power, such as the hunt for Philippine Nobel Prize winner María Ressa by the Rodrigo Duterte administration. Not only did Facebook, Ressa denounced a few days ago, provide a platform for these attacks: “It gave them preferential treatment because anger is the contagious currency of its profit machine. Anger, outrage, and fear alone led to more people using Facebook more times per day. Violence has enriched Facebook,” the journalist wrote.
As Cemop’s political scientists have explained on our pages, the Murcians remain mostly moderate and we are a long way from experiencing the levels of social confrontation reached in Trump’s America, “but it is true that our data does show some remarkable indicators of affective beginning to reveal polarization related to the presence of parties provoking very visceral reactions in public opinion”.
The consequence of this greater polarization is that when going to the polls the ideological position of the candidates weighs more heavily than the analysis of the political management by the government and the opposition. The number of people willing to change the direction of their vote is declining and polarization is giving way to an electoral calcification that will favor conservative positions in the region, the majority for more than two decades, the farther left of it center is removed.
Source: La Verdad
I am George Kunkel, an author working for Today Times Live. I specialize in opinion pieces and cover stories that are both informative and thought-provoking – helping to shape public discourse on key issues. My work is regularly featured across the network’s many platforms, including print media and social media.
