Whenever I read rhetoric like this, I really want the author to make a strong case for this actually being a new phenomenon… that twenty or fifty or a hundred or three hundred or however many years ago this “age” we’re asserted to currently be in supposedly started, we didn’t imagine that our political opponents were evil and their beliefs the result of various ethical flaws.
I strongly doubt it. Mainly because many of the things we recognize and revile in today’s political discourse had a thriving existence around the turn of the century: Yellow Journalism, political machines, Anarchists around every corner… And it’s hard to argue that, say, the 70′s were a more moderated time.
It is possible that specific metaphorical frameworks and memes are more recent and promoted through a greater volume of media than back then, but there is a far greater volume of media in general.
Yeah. I’m no expert, but the impression I get is that it’s a lot easier now to find political commentary that makes at least some attempt to acknowledge the existence of multiple factions than it was fifty years ago.
I assume by “turn of the century” you mean the early 1900s?
Whenever I read rhetoric like this, I really want the author to make a strong case for this actually being a new phenomenon… that twenty or fifty or a hundred or three hundred or however many years ago this “age” we’re asserted to currently be in supposedly started, we didn’t imagine that our political opponents were evil and their beliefs the result of various ethical flaws.
Does Bottum?
I strongly doubt it. Mainly because many of the things we recognize and revile in today’s political discourse had a thriving existence around the turn of the century: Yellow Journalism, political machines, Anarchists around every corner… And it’s hard to argue that, say, the 70′s were a more moderated time.
It is possible that specific metaphorical frameworks and memes are more recent and promoted through a greater volume of media than back then, but there is a far greater volume of media in general.
Yeah. I’m no expert, but the impression I get is that it’s a lot easier now to find political commentary that makes at least some attempt to acknowledge the existence of multiple factions than it was fifty years ago.
I assume by “turn of the century” you mean the early 1900s?
Yeah… Turn of the Century is getting to be an ambiguous phrase now. But I do mean 1900s
It’s possible that we are forced to engage more with peopel we thhink are eivl.