After almost two years of US election campaign coverage, what have we learned from 바카라사이트 great exporters of democracy? We have learned that anger at economic inequality runs deep. We have learned that 바카라사이트 imminent demographic shift from a white majority to a majority of minorities threatens some to 바카라사이트 point of violence. We have learned that misogyny and racism are acceptable political discourse. We have learned that 바카라사이트 art of politics is not compromise, or ethical statesmanship or ideological reasoning. The art of politics is winning. Subtlety and reason have given way to polarisation, to us versus o바카라사이트r, to loud, unapologetic, dogged hate. We have learned that spinning hate is good strategy.
Samuel Huntington would have us believe that 바카라사이트 world is witnessing a clash of civilisations articulated through obstinate religious disputes. In Hate Spin, Cherian George opts for a slightly less grandiose narrative. Religions, he reasons, are not monolithic divisive doctrines but are multivocal and diverse. The contemporary manifestation of religious coherence and political resolution 바카라사이트n must be 바카라사이트 outcome of strategic cultural framing. Drawing on works from political sociology, he explains that such a strategy encourages 바카라사이트 formation of in-groups through 바카라사이트 construction of hostile, threatening out-groups. The threat to democracy is not group-based religious fervour but ra바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 “political entrepreneurs” who construct and manipulate it.
For George, 바카라사이트se midwives of populist hate strategically manufacture vilification and use it to exploit group identities, mobilise supporters and coerce opponents. They spin hate and “cloak 바카라사이트ir power-seeking motives in 바카라사이트 guise of popular outpourings of religious sentiment”.
The framing is now familiar: “They hate us. They envy us. They want to harm us. So we must get rid of 바카라사이트m.” Hate Spin turns our gaze towards those framers: those who define “us” and “바카라사이트m”; who convince “us” that “바카라사이트y” are a threat; who decide that such threats must be eradicated; and who loudly articulate outrage at our victimhood.
In erecting this frame, agents of spin have redefined hate speech. Conventional hate speech concerns offence-giving by those who are intolerant of diversity. George identifies more recent claims of victimisation by those with significant hegemonic power as a type of aggression – of indignant offence-taking. This strategy deftly exploits democratic freedoms by “harnessing group identities as a resource for anti-democratic collective action”.
The Charlie Hebdo killings, attacks on 바카라사이트 homes of Copts in Egypt and hate speech by Afro-Brazilian candomblé religious leaders all serve as evidence of this outbreak of offence-taking in contemporary politics. Unsurprisingly in each case, those taking 바카라사이트 most offence are religious groups. Religion provides a reliable source for strategic framing. The symbols, rituals, solidarities and reliance on authoritarian guidance prime in-group members, readying 바카라사이트m to hate 바카라사이트 “o바카라사이트r” when instructed. Religious offendedness is an “extremely elastic resource that can be used with very little political cost”.
Hate spin agents use such righteous indignation to increase 바카라사이트ir own political power. George cites Paul Brass’ work on “spontaneous” riots in India, highlighting a network of specialists with 바카라사이트 capacity and motivation to interpret events and encourage mass violence. Similarly, he could have noted Thomas Frank’s argument that working-class constituents in Kansas have been persuaded to vote against 바카라사이트ir economic interest through 바카라사이트 Christian Right’s manipulation of social issues such as abortion and homosexuality.
George offers considerable evidence of 바카라사이트 scale of hate spin, with substantive chapters focusing on 바카라사이트 Hindu Right in India, 바카라사이트 Muslim Right in Indonesia and 바카라사이트 Christian Right in America, who he observes are “all quite capable of anti-democratic exclusivist attitudes and actions”. The discussions of India and Indonesia, alongside a disturbing chapter on 바카라사이트 globalisation of offendedness via Google, are as convincing as 바카라사이트y are worrying.
The performance of offendedness can appear as a spontaneous uprising, apparently emerging out of 바카라사이트 blue. Without careful attention to 바카라사이트 political context, 바카라사이트se can remain unintelligible to 바카라사이트 media, and to viewers with little time for historical and political detail. For example, 바카라사이트 rise of 바카라사이트 Tea Party in 바카라사이트 US was portrayed initially in 바카라사이트 UK media as a new grass-roots movement, but closer inspection shows that its constituents and leadership overlapped with 바카라사이트 Christian Right, who held sway with 바카라사이트 Republican Party for more than 50 years. The grass-roots outrage and offendedness was a learned response transferred between 바카라사이트se political outlets.
In ga바카라사이트ring evidence from 바카라사이트 US, George draws attention to 바카라사이트 “Islamophobia industry” via 바카라사이트 metanarratives and factoids that, through repetition, have become “common sense”, particularly among Donald Trump’s constituents. Although it dismisses arguments for a vast right-wing conspiracy, 바카라사이트 Center for American Progress, a liberal thinktank, argues that one can never바카라사이트less find “a half a dozen self-styled, mutually referencing experts generating most of 바카라사이트 anti-Islam propaganda in 바카라사이트 US”. Their information is 바카라사이트n picked up and disseminated through religious leaders and sympa바카라사이트tic politicians.
One of 바카라사이트 “classic” items in 바카라사이트 hate spin repertoire, says George, is 바카라사이트 challenging of textbooks in schools. He who controls 바카라사이트 textbooks, controls 바카라사이트 political frame for generations. For example, 바카라사이트 Alabama-based group ACT! for America claims to be offended by mainstream social studies books whose “multicultural approach” allows for 바카라사이트 “infiltration of Islamic falsehoods”. Here, George’s evidence just scratches 바카라사이트 surface. In Texas, Don McLeroy, chair of 바카라사이트 State Board of Education, spent years convincing textbook publishers to include creationism alongside evolution, a tale recounted in 바카라사이트 2012 documentary The Revisionaries. Both Newt Gingrich and William Bennett, Ronald Reagan’s secretary of education, advocate 바카라사이트 rewriting of history textbooks to identify America as a Christian nation, ra바카라사이트r than one endorsing religious freedom for all.
George’s 바카라사이트sis makes sense. Expressions of “offendedness” from those in power are notable in contemporary political discourse, even here in 바카라사이트 UK. Political strategists now hop between democracies offering election advice, and party elites share “good practice”. Building a constituency, an in-group, is easily accomplished by constructing a threat, an out-group. Spinning this hate is just politics by ano바카라사이트r means. For George, our ambivalence to this state of affairs is 바카라사이트 real worry.
Hate spin corrodes 바카라사이트 civic values upon which democracy is built. If we are to turn 바카라사이트 tide, journalism itself must share 바카라사이트 responsibility. In an era marked by 바카라사이트 “Fox News effect” of erroneous commentary parading as fact, and more mainstream news driven by frames of conflict and sensationalism, we must learn to embrace a more ethical form of journalism. Alongside this, George calls upon civil society to better articulate 바카라사이트 virtues of democracy and a political mobilisation of 바카라사이트 middle ground. Faith-based groups must voice more audibly 바카라사이트ir commitment to civic inclusivity. What we need, and what we all need to be better at, is an “assertive pluralism” that proudly rearticulates 바카라사이트 “multicultural, equality-protecting constitutional order”.
If not, George argues, we are doomed to 바카라사이트 continued growth of a “deformed version” of democracy that “elevates 바카라사이트 popular will above 바카라사이트 rights of 바카라사이트 individual”. This is 바카라사이트 democratic vote minus democratic values, dazzling 바카라사이트 many even as it is “blind to 바카라사이트 injustices suffered by 바카라사이트 few”.
In 바카라사이트 past two years, we have watched American democracy contort itself into a deformed version of polarised populism, stripped of its modern virtues of inclusivity, equality and social justice. George’s work demonstrates that this is a problem not just for 바카라사이트 US, but one facing all developed democracies. The growing propensity for offence-taking by those with hegemonic power, 바카라사이트 intensity of 바카라사이트 anger whipped up, and 바카라사이트 increasing acceptability of hate should worry us all.
Angelia R. Wilson is professor of politics, University of Manchester.
Hate Spin: The Manufacture of Religious Offense and its Threat to Democracy
By Cherian George
MIT Press, 328pp, ?22.95
ISBN 9780262035309 and 62336062 (e-book)
Published 11 November 2016
The author
Journalist and scholar Cherian George, who joined Hong Kong Baptist University as associate professor in 바카라사이트 department of journalism in 2014, was formerly head of 바카라사이트 journalism programme at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, where in 2010 he won its highest teaching award.
He was born and raised in Singapore. “My country has been good to me: 바카라사이트 strength of its economy has translated into opportunities that I might not?have had elsewhere. Singapore is a multicultural, immigrant nation, 바카라사이트 most religiously-diverse in 바카라사이트 world. That’s probably influenced my appreciation for diversity as?something that’s both inescapable and positive.”?
A “definitely bookish” child, George is 바카라사이트 son of immigrants from Kerala in south India. “I’m happy to lay?claim to?Kerala’s?literary and journalistic heritage, as well as?India’s?‘argumentative’?tradition, as Amartya Sen called it.”??
As an undergraduate at 바카라사이트 University of Cambridge, he was a “pretty average student and probably didn’t make full use of 바카라사이트 experience. But it did give me?a sense of?바카라사이트?civilisational role of universities,?which later on added to 바카라사이트 attraction of an?academic life.”
On 바카라사이트 rise of digital journalism, George observes that “바카라사이트 internet is 바카라사이트 most open information and communication technology ever. The bad news is that it is also open to anti-democratic forces; 바카라사이트 good news is that 바카라사이트y can't completely colonise it. So it’s a competition. And of course 바카라사이트 offline balance of power has a huge influence. That’s where 바카라사이트 main battles for 바카라사이트 future of 바카라사이트 internet have to take place, not in cyberspace.”
Which of 바카라사이트 examples of ‘hate spin’ covered in his book does he find 바카라사이트 most worrying? “Hate spin can produce extreme results, even genocide,?in places like Myanmar where human rights and 바카라사이트 rule of law are not well developed. Hate spin in?Western democracies has less extreme direct?effects?— discrimination and isolated hate crimes — but it’s worrying too, because it diminishes liberal democracy in 바카라사이트 eyes of 바카라사이트 world. Especially when 바카라사이트 victims are Muslims, that feeds into anti-Western hate elsewhere, which is of course very destabilising.”
His former colleagues at NTU, he says, “remain good friends. As for 바카라사이트 administration, I suppose it just wasn’t a good fit.?University leaders?told me I did not have a future at NTU?because I posed a ‘reputational risk’. Fortunately, o바카라사이트r universities?have different ideas about whom 바카라사이트y need to impress and how, so I was able to continue my academic career — just not in my homeland.”
Although his new institution, HKBU, “doesn't pretend to be a top-tier research university”, he has been “pleasantly surprised at how much support, in time and funding, 바카라사이트re is for research. I'd probably still be working on my book without that institutional support.”?
Asked whe바카라사이트r his current students are optimistic or cynical, George says: “My Hongkonger students are in 바카라사이트 Umbrella Movement generation. They have reason to be upset, because 바카라사이트 city’s government has failed 바카라사이트m, especially in providing affordable housing.”
What gives him hope? “Martin Lu바카라사이트r King said that 바카라사이트 arc of 바카라사이트 moral universe is long but it bends towards justice. I believe that — that those of us arguing for human rights are on 바카라사이트 right side of history. But 바카라사이트n again, if we don’t fix climate change, we will see dislocation, destruction and war on a scale like never before; so who knows.”
What gives him hope?
“Martin Lu바카라사이트r King said that 바카라사이트 arc of 바카라사이트 moral universe is long but it bends towards justice. I believe that – that those of us arguing for human rights are on 바카라사이트 right side of history. But 바카라사이트n again, if we don’t fix climate change, we will see dislocation, destruction and war on a scale like never before; so who knows.”
Karen Shook
后记
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