Americans Hate Each Other Because Somebody’s Getting Rich Off It

Ben Shapiro put up a video this week asking why so many Americans seem to hate each other over political differences. He cited a newly released survey. And look, I don’t agree with Ben Shapiro on everything, or even most things, but even a broken clock finds the question eventually. The survey says Americans distrust each other at record levels. Over half of us think the average American has bad morals and bad ethics. And everybody’s sitting around scratching their heads like this is some big mystery.

It’s not a mystery. It’s a business model.

Here’s what you can see with your own two eyes. You turn on the news, and somebody’s telling you your neighbor is the enemy. You scroll your phone, and somebody’s telling you half the country wants to destroy the other half. You pick up a paper, and some columnist who lives in a city you can’t afford is explaining that the real problem is ordinary people being too stupid to know what’s good for them.

And every single one of those somebodies is getting paid.

Let me ask you a question. When was the last time a cable news segment ended with “actually, your neighbor across the street wants basically the same things you do”? Never. Because that doesn’t sell ads. Anger sells ads. Outrage sells ads. “Your fellow citizen is a decent person who’s also struggling” doesn’t move the needle on a quarterly earnings call.

Syced (CC0) via Wikimedia Commons

Rupert Murdoch became a U.S. citizen on September 4, 1985. He’d been living here since 1973, but he needed that passport to comply with media ownership laws so he could buy television networks. He renounced his Australian citizenship, dropped $2 billion on a TV network, and spent the next four decades building a media empire that figured out something terrible: you can make a fortune by convincing Americans that other Americans are the problem. Murdoch didn’t invent polarization. But he industrialized it.

And he’s not alone. Every media company, every political consultant, every fundraising operation in this country has run the same playbook. Scare people. Tell them the other side is coming for their kids, their money, their freedom. Then ask for the donation. Then ask again. Then send the text at 11 p.m. saying democracy itself hangs in the balance.

Here’s what I think. I think the disconnect is real. I think the people in charge don’t do what the people want, and then they tell us why it’s actually good that they didn’t. I think when you strip away the cable news and the fundraising emails and the think-tank white papers, most Americans want the same things. A job that pays enough. A school that teaches your kid something useful. A doctor you can afford to see. A government that leaves you alone when you’re doing fine and shows up when you’re not.

But that doesn’t keep anybody employed in Washington.

So they feed us the hate. They package it, they market it, they deliver it to your phone in a push notification. And then they commission surveys to act shocked, shocked, that Americans can’t stand each other anymore.

You want to know why Americans hate each other? Because somebody worked very hard and spent a lot of money to make sure we do. The only question that matters is whether we’re dumb enough to keep falling for it.