In today’s America, even a hospital visit can lead you to be infected by politics
Casually held truisms can sometimes suddenly erupt into daily life with the power of a thunderbolt. In the abstract, I know perfectly well that much of the US exists in political-cultural bubbles that rarely communicate with each other. Yet I wasn’t prepared for a recent encounter with how that can turn a simple human interaction into irrational fury.
I’ve been recovering from an injury in rural Virginia and ended up sharing a room with a man in his mid-80s, born and raised in this area. At first, he couldn’t have been more pleasant, warm and welcoming. On our first day together, he asked if I didn’t mind a little TV in the evening. I said fine, and then came Fox News.
He regularly watches three programmes, culminating in the notorious Tucker Carlson broadcast. In their entirety and natural environment, these shows were quite new to me. They all had a simple formula: find something about which to thunder in faux indignation, and then move on to the next abomination.
I was astounded that at least three quarters of the horrors they fulminated against were exaggerations to the point of being effectively fictional or outright fabrications. I generally kept quiet, but once observed that the subject of the last segment was entirely made up. I was duly ignored.
The only other time I said anything was when Mr Carlson concluded a profoundly racist rant, and I noted it was one of the most offensive things I had viewed in a very long time. He snorted and we moved on.
It was obvious that this virulent propaganda was carefully designed to produce mounting and sustained outrage. Yet, since my roommate consumed three to four hours of it daily and nothing else whatsoever, something wasn’t adding up. He seemed to remain perfectly calm and amiable. So, I began to wonder if I had badly misunderstood both the intended and the real effect of Fox programming on its core audience. Where was the rage?
I didn’t have to wait for long. Shortly thereafter, he came into our room as I was having a conversation about US politics with a third individual. He interrupted, disputing what I was saying with increasing anger. He then stood up, declared that I was “against the country, against America”, denounced President Joe Biden as “a communist,” and marched out.
It was the last I saw him because he immediately arranged to lodge elsewhere and had others retrieve his possessions. It was clear that remaining in my presence for a moment longer was intolerable entirely because we didn’t agree about former president Donald Trump’s term in office and bid for re-election.
His extraordinary reaction to my quite mild though clear disagreement with him suggests several important things.
While I didn’t react with the fury and revulsion he expressed, I live in my own, essentially liberal, bubble where I don’t encounter people like him. Most of the Republicans I know don’t like Mr Trump, and even those who do remain at least partly tethered to the fact-based reality.
Some Americans now simply cannot abide those who categorically disagree with them about domestic politics. Separation is the watchword, as representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia suggested in her call for a “national divorce” between the red and blue parts of America.
Some left-wing Americans must be just as intolerant, but he fits the Trump-supporting demographic perfectly: male, elderly, strongly Christian, lacking higher education and firmly rooted in a rural community. He’s a perfect target for Fox’s calculated, disingenuous propaganda. They are trying to make him and people like him angry and are succeeding brilliantly – to the point that he cannot stand to even share a room briefly with someone who politely and occasionally challenges his political dogma.
It is unclear how many Americans share these views but it’s probably at least 20 per cent of core Republican voters. It is clear, however, there is no liberal propaganda on American television seeking to promote hatred and rage like I saw Fox successfully doing in a small corner of rural Virginia. MSNBC, and arguably even CNN, have liberal biases. But they aren’t deliberately seeking to demonise, and provoke anger and hatred against, other Americans the way Fox does.
The worst part is how cynical we know this is – although my former roommate will likely never hear of it and wouldn’t believe it if he did.
The internal messages uncovered by the Dominion lawsuit against Fox clearly demonstrate that Mr Carlson and the other hosts, along with owner Rupert Murdoch and other senior executives, privately do not believe, and even mock, Mr Trump’s election lies being spread by his representatives, while continuing to broadcast heavy support for those very fabrications.
Mr Carlson added “I hate him passionately,” but you’d never guess that by the “interview” in which he recently allowed Mr Trump to spout all manner of falsehoods and gibberish, including suggesting he alone appreciates the destructive power of nuclear bombs, unchallenged.
It is exceptionally important for journalism that Dominion win this suit, with punitive damages massive enough to rattle a purse as heavy as Mr Murdoch’s. Otherwise, at least in the US, the public will have no reason to believe that news organisations have any real incentive not to blatantly lie for any reason. It’s hard to imagine a bigger blow to journalistic credibility.
Would such a victory do much to counteract the corrosive bile that Fox pours into the minds of its credulous proselytes? That’s unclear, but the network is tearing the US apart in a scramble for the almighty dollar. While protecting the First Amendment and free speech, the means must be found to attenuate their venom and counteract the impact of painstakingly curated outrage and fury against other Americans.
While I didn’t react with the fury and revulsion he expressed, I live in my own, essentially liberal, bubble