The Rise of Social Media Tribes & The Collapse of Discourse

Civility is not saying negative or harsh things. It is not the absence of critical analysis. It is the manner in which we are sharing this territorial freedom of political discussion. If our discourse is yelled and screamed and interrupted and patronized, that’s uncivil. — Richard Dreyfuss

Recently, I found myself listening to a random News item; these words caught my attention.

Para [“……social media is no different, people gravitate towards people like them — their tribe so to speak….”

I don’t recall who said it as it was meant as backdrop noise as I tidied up, and I also noted I had heard these sentiments at least six times this week.

What has happened to discourse?

I use the word discourse, not in any hifalutin manner, but it is the word that subsumes all the ways in which we communicate as humans? And as I find myself unplugging more from the socio-political noise of our southern neighbour, I can’t help but be concerned for the future of what it means to have a variety of views, especially political ones.

This reflection took me back to first-year Philosophy, where it was commonplace to debate controversial concepts, and all emerge wiser than we had started. Today this manner of arriving at a…