Impression: Jan. 6, 2021: Brought to you by the conflict profiteers

Political polarization is nothing new. As a country, we go through cycles of vitriol adopted by relative harmony. The quest for electrical power — the video game of thrones — under no circumstances finishes. There is only the upcoming engage in. To these actively playing for ability, hurt to innocent persons not collaborating in the recreation is an appropriate charge. In the previous number of decades, as the energy of social media has expanded, the collateral problems to people and modern society is growing at ever growing costs.

What happens when our democratic republic is part of the collateral hurt? What takes place to our republic when the conflict profiteers use networks this sort of as Twitter, Fb and Google to change civic engagement for their possess reasons, successfully hijacking democracy?

One particular new detail in our present-day cycle of vitriol is the prospect of a huge swath of Us citizens choosing that democracy is too hard and not value it. If you are less than 30 a long time outdated, prospects are fantastic that you’ve never ever viewed a operating U.S. government. Starting in the 1980s, the American people have turned in opposition to their very own governing administration for several distinctive explanations: more than-regulation, corruption, anti-tax sentiment, oligarchy and additional.

Substantially of the vitriol we are now experiencing has a different resource, too. Conflict profiteers have figured out how to make fortunes by “stirring the pot,” recruiting followers and fleecing them of their attention and dollars. Insert in the social media algorithms on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, et. al, and it’s quick for these conflict profiteers to build appear-alike audiences and recruit even a lot more followers. Their motives assortment from money to affect-peddling to king-earning. Each of these profiteers will cherry-pick one or two info, then extrapolate the tale they want to inform. The tale that will keep their followers “hooked.” This is why I contact it “The Fleecing of America” to deprive us not only of funds but the skill to separate simple fact from fiction. This is the greatest fraud, hoax and swindle as conflict profiteers declare to very own the Fact.

The public Jan. 6 hearings will supply us all the fantastic opportunity to exam our skills to individual the truth of the matter seekers from conflict profiteers. Watch for individuals who respond to testimony by resorting to the ad hominem assaults that are directed in opposition to the specific presenting the details as opposed to addressing the issue at hand. Also, enjoy for those people who overstate and embellish the proof for the function of incorporating to the conflict.

Destructive agitation need to be an anomaly, not a company model. Democracy is a process by which we make collective choices. If it fails, we will have violence, chaos and extra destruction.

So how do we protect our democratic republic from internal and external attacks?

We function toward altering regulations and crafting insurance policies. We do not storm the Capitol to disrupt the consequence of an election. The conflict profiteers have relied on the strategy that adherence to the rule of law is optional. This is more than civil disobedience with the aim of justice. It is electric power-grabbing and it frightens me. If adherence to the law is optional, what dystopian long run could we generate?

The Jan. 6 community hearings will not close the debate around what occurred. They will establish a historic report. Like Watergate, this will be examined and re-examined for decades or lengthier.

And so as you watch the hearing consider to independent the real truth seekers from the conflict profiteers. Query those who just pick out the couple remarks to aid the story they want to inform, steering clear of the preponderance of evidence.

I hope we, the American persons, like our democratic republic much more than we dislike our fellow People in america with whom we disagree. Our region relies upon on it.

Debilyn Molineaux is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and president/CEO of the Bridge Alliance Education and learning Fund. ©2022 The Fulcrum. Dispersed by Tribune Written content Company.