Rubio warns against social-media fueled insular thinking
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, RFla., delivered a sobering assessment Wednesday of the sorry state of public discourse, the consequences of a world dominated by social media, and the corrosive nature of rampant conspiracy theories — all forces he said are difficult to overcome.
It wasn’t the kind of partisan speech that a candidate delivers at a political barbecue, rah-rah remarks at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon, or a collection of snappy soundbites designed to capture attention on TV or Twitter.
Instead, for most of the hour he spoke and answered questions at the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches, Rubio concentrated on broad and complex trends, not the hot topics of the day.
The few soundbites related to his overall themes. Illustrating the proliferation of conspiracy theories, he cited sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide in a federal jail:
“You go online, and there’s one group that’s saying that ‘Hillary Clinton murdered him,’ and there’s another group saying, ‘No, [President Donald] Trump had him murdered.’ That’s how insane some of this stuff has gotten.”
People ought to be willing to accept the obvious explanation, Rubio said: Epstein was a “sicko.”
“It is important to question authority and ask questions and make sure that we’re getting the full story,” he said. “But I also think it’s important not to jump on every conspiracy you read or hear. … A lot of times if something sounds too crazy, it might be.”
Rubio, who lost the 2016 Republican presidential nomination to Trump, didn’t talk about the president — although Trump engages in some of the behaviors the senator criticized, such as trafficking in conspiracy theories. For examthat ple, Trump retweeted an allegation that Clinton was responsible for killing Epstein.
Gun safety
Rubio addressed one major current issue, gun violence, in response to a question from Lauren Brensel of Lake Worth, a junior at Suncoast High School.
Brensel wanted to know what the Senate would do to make schools safer. He said he’d like to see legislation to create incentives for states to enact “extreme protection orders,” also known as red flag laws, that would allow seizure of weapons from someone deemed dangerous.
He also wants to enhance the kind of program the Secret Service uses to assess threats against the presidents to encompass threats could result in mass violence.
He said lawmakers could get consensus on those two measures. On Tuesday, Trump backed away from other possible legislation, such as expanding background checks for firearms purchases. Rubio didn’t address background checks, but he said lawmakers should act on what they can agree on and not reject all measures even if they aren’t as comprehensive as some would like.
Protest era
Rubio said the world is in an era of protest movements that involve rejection of the status quo, with roots in the 2007-2008 financial crisis that “shook the foundations of a lot of people’s lives.” Even though the economy has improved, “for a lot of people the scars have remained.”
Many people feel the system isn’t working for them. “Not just in United States, but globally, there is growing number of people in western industrialized economies who feel displaced, disrespected, or left behind, and added to it and embedded in all of that are the changes and the disruption,” he said.
Polarization
Rubio said that too many people in the increasingly divided country believe that “the only way I can win is if someone else loses.” Compromise seems evil, not positive, to many.
“If [you] change your mind on the basis of new information it is a catastrophic development in terms of how people view you,” Rubio said. To some, “compromise is viewed as a betrayal of your group. … How can you possibly compromise with the other side and betray us? Or you are a double agent. You never actually were a part of our group and we knew it all along. Or you’re just weak and scared.”
Social media
It’s all made worse, Rubio said, by the rise of social media, controlled by computer algorithms.
“Increasingly those algorithms mean you are being connected with those voices that agree with you, so you’re getting information that confirms how right you are and people who agree with you at the expense of being exposed to the ideas and thoughts of others,” he said.
He said it’s exacerbated by media outlets that find profit in putting outrageous claims, rather than thoughtful discourse, on TV to get ratings or online to generate website clicks.
And politicians have figured that out too. “I’m not going to get famous by going on TV and sounding reasonable. I’m going to get famous by going on TV and saying outrageous stuff.”
Rubio said many tensions are worsened by foreign interference, especially from Russia, which he said is a bigger threat than the possibility of manipulating election systems.
“Any time there is any conflict in American society of any sort, these people online, these trolls that they employ, come out of the woodwork on both sides pushing hashtags. They were all over this Epstein stuff,” he said. “You pick a fault line in American politics they’ll jump on it.”
Forum Club
The 700 people who attended the speech come from Palm Beach County’s business, legal and political establishments, and included many current and former Republican and Democratic elected officials. The organization also invites two tables of students from two high schools to each of its events.
“It was a sober evaluation of where we are as a country and a people,” said U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, R-Fla. “I’ve never heard him give a speech like that.”
Several Democrats also said they were impressed.
“I’m a Democrat, he’s a Republican, and I’m not always going to agree with the positions that he has, but I think he’s bringing out very good points,” said Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary Lou Berger. “He’s right. We need to learn to rein it in. We need to learn respect. The country would be in a better place.”