The news media loves to tell us that the country is more divided than ever, and in some ways that’s true. But it isn’t because of our political differences – it is because of our tribalism – the “team sports” mentality that we’ve attached to our politics. Mike Papantonio is joined by Independent newspaper publisher Rick Outzen to explain more.
Transcript:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
Mike Papantonio: The news media loves to tell us that this country is more divided than ever, in some ways that is true, but it’s not because of political differences. It’s because of our tribalism. The team sports mentality that we’ve attached to politics. It’s gotten to where we dislike people if they’re on the other side, Rick. It’s got to where we won’t even hang out with people if they’re on the other side. I call it a caveman mentality because we come from caves. Right? And in cave days, with that mentality, the people in the other cave were our enemies. That’s where we’ve gotten with this. Right?
Rick Outzen: Well, and you used to have to feel like you needed to get along. We need to figure, maybe we can accept when we had differences, but we would tolerate each other. Where now you can get in, the caves have become bubbles. You’re in a bubble now in social media. You’re in a bubble where, the clubs you go to, the places you want to be. You know, Thanksgiving dinner, there are certain members of the family aren’t invited to the dinner because y’all are gonna disagree.
Mike Papantonio: You can’t marry somebody if they’re Republican or a Democrat.
Rick Outzen: Right, right.
Mike Papantonio: So, I’m looking at words that psychologists have used to describe this kind of, it’s childlike thinking, inability to critically think, lack of information and depth. Same people who burned the witches. These are phrases that come from people that say, what the hell’s happened? I love this one, celebrity thinking. Okay. Celebrity gets on the TV and they say, this is what I think about politics. Well, most of these actors in California, hell, while they were studying theater, they were studying how do I develop a theater personality, everybody else was studying science and history and economics and real courses. But nevertheless, you’ll have these Chelsea Handler types come out and say, this is what I think the politics should be. Do you know the story about Chelsea Handler? Look this up. Chelsea Handler, this is not part of her act, her sister said, she literally did not know the difference that there was a sun and a moon. She did not know they were, I’m not making it, take a look at it.
Rick Outzen: Alright.
Mike Papantonio: This was not part of her routine. This is her sister saying this is real. But nevertheless, Chelsea Handler, who doesn’t know the difference, that there’s a difference between a moon and a sun, that she’s out there advising the celebrity followers about politics. And so if you look at this, this is what the psychologists say are going on right now. These are the factors. This is how they describe it.
Rick Outzen: Well, and there’s money in it. The reason the tribalism works, it’s how campaigns done, campaign fundraising is done up and down the ladder. Both sides of the party, they’re gonna raise by demonize the other side, demonize whoever they can, and they’re gonna be the savior. I’m the one who’s got the right idea and you should believe me. And so, it is happening in the news area. It’s happening around us. People are figuring out the money that can be made by being in the right tribe.
Mike Papantonio:But it’s become vicious. They just came out with a book that I think you and I might have, we did a segment on it. It was the book about stupid white trash people in the, basically that.
Rick Outzen: That got me a lot. That went viral.
Mike Papantonio: That wasn’t the name of it. But basically it was about the writers calling voters who disagree with what he believed, whatever his Democratic principles were, calling them basically stupid white trash rural types that don’t have enough sense. It was almost a takeoff on Hillary Clinton calling ’em deplorables. But the division is that bad. I mean, how do you get back from that?
Rick Outzen: That’s the struggle. It’s scary that we had the January 6th insurrection and that was so divisive. And now we’re heading towards an election and we’re seeing people openly talking about violence.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. It’s almost civil war mentality.
Rick Outzen: Right, right.
Mike Papantonio: I mean, like January 6th, those people were there to change government. Now, I would love to say that it’s only the Republicans that are doing that. But the Democrats are just as bad. Right. I mean, the hate, the hate that they spew from both sides is so divisive. Bill Maher, by the way, great example of somebody who has been a progressive voice for so long is saying we’re in real trouble, because I can’t even do, I saw the other day, he doesn’t do college campus routines anymore. He won’t go onto a college campus because he says they’re unable to critically think. That they’re so divided by their politics that he doesn’t, he can’t even go on a college campus and do a comedy routine. And if you think about it, that’s kind of where we are because we’re just so divided.
Rick Outzen: Well, and we’ve lost that ability to explore a new idea.
Mike Papantonio: Oh, for sure.
Rick Outzen: You know, and what happens with Maher, is he brings on a guest that his certain part of his fan base don’t want to have them on the air. So you don’t have the.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. Don’t want, don’t want to listen to ’em. You see, that’s where this comes in where the psychologist said it’s childlike thinking. It’s inability to think critically. It’s a lack of depth of education and world experience. It’s the same people who burned witches. I mean, these are the descriptions when you try to say, well, what’s going on out there? That’s what’s happening. The other day, I think on MSNBC, a friend of mine, I’ve known, Rachel Maddow and I used to do a show together years ago. We did a show together with, radio show for a couple years with Air America. Right?
Rick Outzen: Right.
Mike Papantonio: And she comes out and says on the air that if Trump is elected, that she’s gonna be targeted like some kind of political prisoner, you know, some type of political target. But that’s where we’ve gotten. That’s where our thinking has gotten us today. I don’t know how we turn it around.
Rick Outzen: I don’t either.
Suspicious Activity: That it had helped dirty money flow through its branches around the world, including at least 800. Plaintiffs allege that the defendants provided money and medical goods to terrorist groups, Hezbollah and Jaysh al-Adl. This is a well organized business for these individuals that carry out these attacks. Terrorism is a business and they run it like a business. They knew about what was going on for a decade. They absolutely, absolutely no question about it knew that HSBC was washing money. They had every reason to understand it was for terrorism and it was for drug cartels. Took no action whatsoever.
These banks are involved, their accounts are connected, and they’re using them to mask the transactions. The more complicated they can make the transactions, the more distance they could put between the bad guys and a seemingly legitimate purpose of these funds. They pay $1.9 billion, which is a drop in the bucket compared to what they’ve made. And nobody goes to prison. These CEOs, these bankers that made this decision, they’re safe at home. They know what they’ve done. They know it’s resulted in the death of Americans, contractors and soldiers, not just hundreds but thousands. And we look the other way because they don’t look like criminals. The die cast, the people that are responsible for it, are on Wall Street. And they don’t look like criminals. It’s almost a suspension of disbelief. Sometimes I’ll have people call me and say, is this, is this real? Do they really get away with this? Yeah, they do.
