INTRODUCTION // Conversations in Wisconsin in 2023
One of the things on my heart lately has been to better understand how society has gotten to a place where family relations, community relations and levels of national unity have diminished over the course of recent years.
In other words… how we have gotten to a place where folks have stopped speaking with one another over differences in opinion, or how our ability to engage in polite and civil discourse has diminished.
I first came in touch with this strange phenomenon back in 2023, when I visited Wisconsin for six weeks.
It was nearly three years on from the death of George Floyd and the wave of protests that followed across much of the US, and spread further afield, including to the UK.
I was in Wisconsin for 6 weeks, in a neighbourhood of mostly retired folks. The day I arrived, I was well looked-after by my hosts, who had recently moved there themselves. There was a monthly neighbourhood dinner happening that very evening; they had just arrived and not been to one of these. After letting me into their place and helping me get settled in, they went up the road.
It wasn't long before I got a call to say the neighbours hosting would like to invite me around, "the housesitter from England". What lovely community spirit, I thought.
Pete and Milana, my hosts, went on to travel to Europe a couple of days later; I was there to look after their place and their house-cat, Tzitz.
The trip went on as it started. I was invited around for dinners, treated to good food and pleasant conversations with friendly questions like: "What do British people think about Harry and Meghan?" and "Do you watch the TV show, 'The Crown?"
It seemed there was an interest in and curiosity about all things "British". It was all quite very amiable. I suspect that, being a newbie to the area, being British and being the age of the children of some of these retired folks, brought about a certain kidness towards me.
I fondly remember a neighbourhood dinner and a group bingo night in a local bar in downtown Lake Geneva. This resort town got busy during the Summer month, real busy. I got to experience the frozen lake when I arrived in February, and the transformation of winter to spring as sunnier days emerged. I experienced everything from balmy weather to a few feet of snow (and even a tornado alert) during those six weeks. It was a good time.
And then, one evening, I was invited around for dinner by the couple opposite to watch the Wisconsin Badgers, the college side, feature in "March Madness" -- a period of a few weeks each year with a lot of college basketball over the course of a few weeks. If you're in the US, it's kind of a big deal.
It would be this evening that I would hear the fateful words I was confused to hear but perhaps, looking back, I ought to have paid more thought and attention to.
Somewhere along the line I heard the following lines in a passing comment:
"We don't talk to (her) anymore… she's a Trumper."
Huh, I remember thinking. It didn't feel like my place to probe, pry, or even react in any particular way.
We carried on enjoying our evening together (the Badgers were notorious for taking leads and then throwing them away, I would later learn from this Wisconsin couple).
Later, I recall thinking more about that statement. “There must be more to it than that... surely?”
I couldn't believe that these siblings had fallen out over differences in political opinion. Surely not.
Further trips into and out of US airports were quite telling.
The reaction to Donald Trump on the screens of CNN in airport lounges was visceral. Folks would stand to watch press conferences, some looking solemn, others wearing expressions of somewhere between bewilderment, hurt and anger.
This was stark in contrast to the jubilant scenes at Trump rallies that RSBN would show in the run up to the 2020 election.
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RETURNING TO THE USA IN 2025 // How did we get here?
Earlier this year, I found myself back in the US, in the states of Florida (~ 4 weeks) and Texas (~ 8 weeks).
Just like Wisconsin, I can honestly say my day-to-day experience of the cities and towns I spent time in, from the major cities like Fort Lauderdale, Fort Worth & Austin to smaller cities and towns in both states (like Daytona Beach, FL and Gilmer, TX) was one of friendliness and, as far I experienced, good community spirit.
💡 The reality on the ground painted a different picture to the one I was seeing play out in the media.
How on earth did we get here?
Upon arriving in Fort Worth, TX (which was my base whilst I was in Texas for those two months), one of the first things one of the neighbours shared with me was being ostracised by an old group of school-friends who had teased him and his wife, and nastily referred to them as "libtards".
I'll be honest, I had never come across this word until then.
When he shared that with me, I remember exclaiming something along the lines of: "Gosh. What does that word even mean?"
It was quite clear that the word had been used in a nasting and insulting way, and that these neighbours had been left feeling ostracised.
This was another example of pain and separation that had come from a difference in opinion.
So, now, two years apart and two clear examples of differences in political opinion dividing siblings and neighbours?
This was in equal parts crazy and shocking to me.
💡 It's a tribal thing for us to belong and want to be a part of a group.
This is why 'divide and conquer' has been so effective over the years.
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A WORKING HYPOTHESIS
My working hypothesis -- supported by personal experiences and qualitative + quantitative research -- is that there are 3 significant contributing factors that explain "how we got here", intertwined with one another:
1) CONSUMPTION OF DIGITAL MEDIA:
An increased participation in the 24-7 news & social media cycles through screens
2) THE GLOBAL PANDEMIC:
An increase in social separation and isolation arising from the global pandemic and the lockdowns that followed
3) LEVELS OF FEAR (and hope):
An increase in anxiety and fear (and decrease in hope), brought about by a combination of the above factors
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My supposition is that the factors above have contributed to these deep divides and a leap backward in civilisation, in the United Kingdom, the United States and “the West” as a whole.
💡 CIVILIZATION:
"the stage of human social and cultural development and organization that is considered most advanced"
Both in the UK and the US, results from the most recent general elections present a picture of divided nations.
In the bi-partisan system of the US, the split is pretty much right down the middle:
In the UK the picture is more mixed, with 2/3 voting for the Labour and Conservative parties, and 1/3 voting for other parties.
Returning to the above formula of 1) Consumption of digital media + 2) The global pandemic + 3) Levels of fear (and hope)…
💡 I would suggest that we are currently in new and unprecedented territory — it is only until relatively recently that the internet and the smartphone have been invented and adopted en masse.
And so, whilst civilizations have gone through and will continue to go through challenging times in the years ahead, we are currently experiencing nothing quite like what we are currently experiencing.
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HOW DO WE MOVE ON FROM THIS?
There is a growing body of research that is giving us a better understanding into the effects of the consumption of digital media; whilst many of these studies focus on youth and adolescent demographics, I would argue that the effects on the adult brain are similar.
Here is one such research paper coming out of Harvard Medical School. More such research is needed.
💡 Time will tell as we conduct further longitudinal studies into what has happened to our brains during this unprecedented double-whammy of the global pandemic *and* the continued consumption of digital media
The research, and in particular longitudinal studies, are still catching up here.
That is a working hypothesis of how I believe we arrived here.
In the coming days and weeks I'll be sharing more on this, and focus in on how we can move forward from this.
Spoiler: not all digital media is bad, the negative effects of the global pandemic can be counter-balanced, and hope and optimism are a good antidote to fear and anxiety.
Here to more hope, optimism and unison over division.
Many of us are in the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union after all...
Thank you for reading,
Jazz
jasraj.s.hothi@gmail.com // www.jasraj.co
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