I love this! I’ve long viewed self-righteous indignation to be the heroin of the evangelicals. It’s hard to turn away from the elixir of joy and anger no matter how many wacko-do things you have to integrate into your belief system to stay there.
I kinda wonder whether media refuses to acknowledge (White) religion as the driver of their polarization less due to a commitment to the educational gap and more due to their desperate grasping for White Christian viewers.
That would require some actual thinking on the part of reporters snd pundits. I think it’s, as Mike argued, confirmation bias. I’m not sure this is quite the same as “group-think” or “pack journalism”, but it’s all of a piece. Some highly respected reporter or pundit will say or write something, the others will say, “Sounds right to me,” and off they’ll go, looking for stories or tidbits for an opinion piece that will confirms the original “hot take”, while ignoring all the other data available to them if they only dared to break from the pack. Being an outlier is reputationally and professionally risky, and with rare exceptions they’re not by nature risk-takers.
I love this! I’ve long viewed self-righteous indignation to be the heroin of the evangelicals. It’s hard to turn away from the elixir of joy and anger no matter how many wacko-do things you have to integrate into your belief system to stay there.
I kinda wonder whether media refuses to acknowledge (White) religion as the driver of their polarization less due to a commitment to the educational gap and more due to their desperate grasping for White Christian viewers.
That would require some actual thinking on the part of reporters snd pundits. I think it’s, as Mike argued, confirmation bias. I’m not sure this is quite the same as “group-think” or “pack journalism”, but it’s all of a piece. Some highly respected reporter or pundit will say or write something, the others will say, “Sounds right to me,” and off they’ll go, looking for stories or tidbits for an opinion piece that will confirms the original “hot take”, while ignoring all the other data available to them if they only dared to break from the pack. Being an outlier is reputationally and professionally risky, and with rare exceptions they’re not by nature risk-takers.
Brad - good to hear from you - hope all is well