The poet Robert Burns once wrote, “Be merry, I advise. But as we be merry, may we also be wise.” As Republicans aim to roll back climate policy progress it is increasingly difficult for the climate coalition to be merry.
The fire hose of frightening news is by design. It is Steve Bannon’s promise to “flood the zone with shit” realized, and it is intended to stick a thumb in the eye of the Democrats, liberals and progressives who the MAGA right regards with such dripping contempt. If you are wondering why formerly thoughtful, sober congressional conservatives go along — why they support policies or unqualified nominees that they would have openly opposed a few years ago — the answer lies in the power of the modern media environment to shape voters’ views and preferences.
It would be comforting to think that the propaganda machine only distorts other people’s political views. But it is an equal opportunity warper of perceptions. It winds us up emotionally and censors the information we see — all in order to persuade us. Today, cable news hosts, pundits, podcasters — anyone who isn’t a dedicated, trained journalist serving a politically-broad audience — is trying to persuade you at least as much as they try to inform or educate you. And they do that by provoking emotion, sharing your outrage and steering it toward particular political conclusions.
When you watch or listen to news, you encounter pundits and prognosticators whose job it is to provide an opinion; they do so because it helps to fill air time. The opinion may or may not be the same opinion they would have developed away from the cameras or microphone if given more time. These people are content providers, and so they supply opinions, and do so in a hyper-competitive market for your attention — one in which provocative views get more clicks.
Reading the news is different. When you read the news you can control the rate at which you take in new information. When you read news from a trained journalist who has curated expert opinions for you, you get a much fuller picture of the facts and the context in which they sit. Reading the news is better for both sides of your brain: the emotional side and the rational side.
Passive learning is less effective than active learning, and reading is more active than watching or listening. It is better for children’s cognitive development to read a story rather than to watch the movie version of the story because it invokes their imagination. So it is with adults and information about complex policy problems like climate change.
So the problem is not just that formerly thoughtful conservative politicians must kowtow to the MAGA Republicans who vote in Republican primaries. Cable news and podcasts keep the climate coalition angry and anxious too, suggesting that talking to our GOP friends, family and neighbors about politics and policy is pointless. But it is essential to political progress.
Today it is more difficult to be merry and wise about regulatory politics than at any time in a century. But unless we all figure our how to get smarter about consuming news in the modern media environment, policy progress will elude us. — David Spence
