Beware of the `hate industrial complex’
Tonight’s Greenwich event has been canceled
The Front Page
Morning Update
Thursday, January 13, 2021
By Ken Tingley
Within a few minutes, Dave Isay had coined new and important terminology we all need to understand if we are going to get our country - and our sanity - back.
I was watching “60 Minutes” - it should be mandatory viewing in every living room in the country - where Isay was summing up the problem we are facing in our country better than anyone.
“It's media. It's social media. I mean, there's a multi-multi-multi-billion dollar hate industrial complex, where people - you know, can make money by making us hate and fear each other,” Isay explained to Norah O’Donnell. “It's a little bit of a David and Goliath fight here.”
Consider that term for a second - “the hate industrial complex.”
Consider the possibility that is what is really taking us down - cable news profits.
The sad part is that most of us have bought into it as well. Instead of having well-reasoned debates between individuals, instead of trying to understand the issues better and embrace the facts, we find it far more convenient to blast out insults on Twitter and Facebook.
We are all guilty.
Our political leaders may be the worst of all. They take partisan positions - often light in facts - to fuel the flames of division further.
Isay reminded us that when you watch the prime time cable opinion shows, you are just putting money in someone’s pocket for selling a “culture of contempt.”
Think about that for a second. While previous generations were sold on products they didn’t need, the current cable news shows are selling us on hate that is not really legitimate.
It leads to insults and contempt for family, friends and neighbors, and if we read something we disagree with in the daily newspaper, we can fall back on the “fake news” excuse.
That makes me especially angry.
I heard it again Wednesday and wanted to stand up and scream, “Read a damn newspaper! You might learn something.”
I didn’t say it, but it is a reminder that we all need to figure how to get that message out.
Isay created a program called "One Small Step" to get Americans from across the political spectrum to stop demonizing one another. It reminded me of the Better Angels folks who came through our region a couple years ago with a model to get people talking to each other.
“Yeah. I think people feel, people feel misunderstood and judged and heard. You know, nobody has ever, in the in the history of humanity, no nobody's ever changed their mind because by being called an idiot or a moron or a snowflake,” Isay said on “60 Minutes.”
“One Small Step” grew out of a program Isay founded called “StoryCorps.” Over 18 years, the program has taped more than half a million Americans telling their stories. The idea was for people to talk to each other about what they mean to each other. Isay described it this way: “If I had 40 minutes left to live, what would I say to this person who means so much to me.”
The new program pairs people on opposite sides of the political spectrum who have other things in common. The goal is for them to talk to each other about what they like and agree about with each other.
Unfortunately, there are over 300 million of us, so those conversations might take a long time. We first need to acknowledge we don’t know everything about the complex world around us. We need to depend on reliable news organizations and trust in their reporting. That means, turning off your television more often and getting a newspaper subscription or two.
Isay told “60 Minutes” that journalism should be a public service and now hopes that "One Small Step" can help end what he calls the "culture of contempt" that is tearing apart the country.
It’s a start.
Greenwich event off
One final reminder that tonight’s conversation with Joe Donohue has been pushed back until Thursday, March 10 due to the high rate of Covid-19 in the county.
All those who registered for the Jan. 13 event will remained registered for the March 10 event.
In the meantime, Battkenkill Books in Cambridge will continue to carry my book “The Last American Editor” and you can pick up a copy before the event.
It is also available at Northshire Books in Saratoga Springs, Ace Hardware and The Silo in Queensbury, the Warren County Historical Society, the Lake George Historical Society, the Chapman Museum, McKernon Gallery in Hudson Falls and Rock Hill Bakehouse and Bookstore in Glens Falls.
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I, too, watched 60 minutes, as i always do....and was really touched by all that Isay said (and his continual work to get people to listen). I am terrified really of how hate and contempt and violence are encouraged as if this is the voice of the people. I think of the Brown Shirts, the Black Shirts, the ease with which a people can become a herd of hate, storming the capital and threatening anyone who dares to be bipartisan and disagree with the "leader." I do believe we can and must talk to people who are able to listen and speak what feels true to their heart. I also believe that most people have a deep kindness and generosity and care for their family and even our earth. I don't think i could talk to some of the hate mongers, the Alex Jones and the now "leaders" of the republican party that sanction and spout misinformation, threaten and punish dissenters even in their own party. .There is a partisan divide but both parties are not equally responsible for the hate. When i listen to Raskin and Biden and Schumer and Sanders I hear anger at injustice but not approval for violence. And not a desire to threaten and use force. Fannie Lou Hamer and Martin Luther King and Reverend Barber do not promote violence but, rather, action to create a real democracy. Almost all the thoughtful historians see the grave danger to democracy. And I need to repeat that the danger is more from the leaders (not the people) on the other side.
So Ken i thank you for your blog and i have continually thanked the Post Star for always trying to give local, national, and international news that is informative and impartial, one of the few local papers that has survived, that everyone should support, a paper that informs...like BBC, like NPR, like some of the excellent columnists that I listen to every day because i want to learn...and i always learn from 60 minutes....
Thank you, Mr. Tingley, for your commentary and quoted material. Dividing and distracting the populace (divide and conquer) has effectively caused a destructive and dehumanizing effect on way too many people. That new term makes me understand where it comes from, and like the older military industrial complex, it certainly is not based on democratic ideals or even on an outlook of a future where all people on earth could constructively and collectively tackle important issues that affect all of us. Ultimately, it is causing all kinds of moral, social and environmental disasters because of these divisive attacks. And I'm not even a pessimist!!