#political-polarization

#political-polarization

Americans' trust in the media has plunged to its lowest ever level, according to the latest Gallup poll, with just 28% of U.S. adults expressing a "great deal" or "fair amount" of confidence in newspapers, television, and radio to report news fully, accurately, and fairly. This figure marks a steep decline from last year's already historic low of 31%, and continues a nearly five-decade slide from the high of 68% recorded in 1972. Just five years ago, it was at 40%.

Liberals and conservatives both oppose censorship of children's literature - unless the writing offends their own ideology, new Cornell research finds. Studying a representative U.S. population, the scholars in literature, sociology and information science found competing cancel cultures in which widespread opposition to literary censorship masked offsetting disagreements between left- and right-wing values. Those attitudes highlight the polarization of an issue once governed by bipartisan consensus over the need to protect children from inappropriate violent or sexual content. Now, the researchers said, offensive political ideas are viewed as dangerous - threatening free speech as a core value.

A self-proclaimed "MAGA Dentist" is facing backlash after a video of her joking about turning down pain-relieving gas for liberal patients at her Santa Clarita clinic blew up online. Dr. Harleen Grewal of Skyline Smiles made this quip and other wisecracks about her distaste for left-leaning clients during a speech at the Republican Liberty Gala in 2021, comments that recently attracted mass attention after a video of the speech went viral on TikTok.

With the backing of a legislature his party dominated, Republican governor Doug Ducey created Arizona State University's School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership in 2016. Both SCETL and its founding director, Paul Carrese, are now understood as key leaders in a movement for civic schools and centers.

At Charlie Kirk's memorial service, his widow, Erika, stunned mourners and a deeply divided nation by publicly forgiving her husband's assassin. But the solemn moment was soon undercut when President Donald Trump, speaking at the same event, veered off script to joke that, unlike Kirk, he hates his opponents. The crowd laughed, but the remark underscored just how quickly grace can be drowned out by grievance.

In the queer enclave of West Hollywood, some residents were furious at the sight of a Pride flag and a transgender flag lowered to half-staff to mourn Charlie Kirk's assassination. In the city of Los Angeles, an internal Fire Department memo saying flags should stay raised sparked conservative anger at Mayor Karen Bass. And in Huntington Beach, where MAGA politics are warmly received, officials pledged to honor Kirk's memory by keeping flags lowered for an additional week past the mourning period set by President Trump.

The goal is to make buttons intuitive, easy to use, and - predictable. But is the disclosure, about participating in social media and expressing approval, full and revealing? I guess it all comes down to what you would define as a "positive experience". As I write this, two messed up, intertwined things are happening. Both can be directly linked to how the engagement dynamics of social media, driven by technology such as "like" buttons, has negatively impacted global politics.

The assassination of Charlie Kirk is widening the political divide in America-and some people who have made critical remarks about the conservative icon are finding their personal information being posted online, opening them up to harassment and threats. One site, called " Expose Charlie's Murderers," has been taken offline after posting the names of 41 people that it claimed were "supporting political violence online." The site reportedly said it was working on a backlog of over 20,000 submissions before it was taken down.

We are going to channel all of the anger that we have over the organised campaign that led to this assassination, to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks, said Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff. Miller added that It will happen, and we will do it in Charlie's name.

But Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican who has become a measured voice of the investigation into Kirk's killing, has urged Americans to resist "rage" in the wake of the shooting. Driving the news: Cox said on CNN's "State of the Union" that the country does not need to "sing Kumbaya and hold hands" - but rather, people must continue to engage with those with whom they disagree.

School is expensive, student loan debt is often onerous and job security for those with degrees has diminished - even more so with the advent of AI. Plus, at the moment new graduates are seeing higher unemployment rates. There's also growing interest and appeal for young adults in the skilled trades - becoming plumbers, electricians, etc. - especially as AI appears to threaten white collar work.

We see wild parties, holidays, weddings, family outings and close-knit friendship groups, wrote one Guardian journalist in 2015. She went on: Apart from commemorating a deceased person's life, you'll be hard pushed to find a really bad moment in your feed. Here, it seemed, was a modern iteration of the opium always purveyed by free-market capitalism, resulting in a constant stream of personal happiness and precious little recognition of life's more difficult aspects: social strife, inequality, disagreement.

Arguably the most remarkable aspect of the aftermath of the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk's assassination is how irrelevant its actual perpetrator was to the immediate discourse. I saw the finger-pointing online even before I saw the news that Kirk had been shot. At that point, there was hardly any information about the incident-let alone details about the shooter or a motive.

Kirk has been one of the most divisive, especially divisive younger figures in this, who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech. And I always go back to hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions, Dowd continued. You can't stop with these sort of awful thoughts you have, and then saying these awful words, and then not expect awful actions to take place. And that's the unfortunate environment we are in.

Inuendo Studios presents an excellent and approachable analysis of the infamous Gamer Gate and its role in later digital radicalization. This video inspired me to think about manufactured outrage, which reminded me of the fake outrage over such video games as Cuphead and Doom. There was also similar rage against the She-Ra and He-Man reboots. Mainstream fictional outrage against fiction involved the Republican's rage against Dr. Seuss being "cancelled." Unfortunately, fictional outrage can lead to real consequences, such as death threats, doxing, swatting, and harassment.

The high-contrast footage was scrutinized for evidence that it had been manipulated by artificial intelligence, and some viewers claimed they found undeniable proof. At one point in the clip, Trump's left pinky finger appears to merge with the others as he clasps his hands on the desk. Conspiracy theorists have seized on this, arguing it showed the president as proof that Trump didn't make the statement at all, or that it was highly doctored.

We're so far from even where I was when I was there, 25 years ago, just would not have happened. And it is happening now. And we as a nation have to figure out a way to pull ourselves back from the brink. We still remain the strongest, most powerful country on the face of the Earth. But oftentimes, it seems post-9/11 that we are that country in spite of ourselves, in spite of our leaders.