A study showed that falsehoods are 70 percent more likely to be shared on Twitter, while, at the same time, our own psychology appears hardwired to believe a headline we have previously seen before, regardless of its veracity. The technological advance and opportunity of social media has created an interconnected world where, sadly, fake news thrives. For political provocateurs at home and propagandists abroad, this vacuum is inviting. The absence of a common narrative has created a vacuum into which tribal partisanship and misinformation flow. Liberals claimed they were more likely to block or “unfriend” political viewpoints with which they disagreed. Research on media habits found that there was almost no overlap in what consistent conservatives and liberals found to be “trusted” media sources.Ĭonservatives reported that they were more likely to see only conservative viewpoints on social media. That said, it is worth noting that before a single ballot was cast in 2016, a Washington Post survey found that 40 percent of Americans had “lost faith in American democracy.”Īs we have lost faith in our system of government, those among us who are active in politics have retreated into partisan echo chambers. Some might say that this current collapse is the result of the clouds of scandal and partisan back and forth surrounding the Trump administration. Even when the president had resigned office in the face of impeachment, twice as many Americans, proportionally, had faith in their government. Even in the depths of post-Watergate politics, that number was 36 percent. Data from the Pew Research Center shows that only 18 percent of Americans trust their government “always or most of the time.” T he loss of faith in our institutions is laid bare in survey after survey. Today, these similar levels of discord now come from our collapsing faith in shared institutions and the retreat to partisan echo chambers. and the rioting in American cities - all laid bare political, societal and racial strife that had been unresolved and echoes to this day. The events of 1968 which we now commemorate looking back 50 years - the Tet Offensive, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The era of the Gilded Age laid bare the gap between our nation’s haves and have nots. There is no greater a breach in our body politic than the years of the Civil War. American history often has its moments of tumult and discord.