Toxicity in Politics

[Natasha]

I am participating in a poll conducted by a European university on what behaviors would be considered toxic in politics and which political figures are good examples of those behaviors and why. Any feedback/opinion is apreciated. And please be as objective in your comments as possible. Thanks!

[Sri McDonald Trump Maharaj]

Admitting that you where wrong and being able to say "I don't know" might be a good thing to be capable of.

[Milos Uzelac]

Fearmongering, demonizing, stereotyping and scapegoating a minority ethnic, religious or social group within a country or another nationality within a neighbouring country in order to divert the publics attention from the economic or other problems that the country went through, is going through or is facing ahead. 

For example the whole current government of Serbia and the President Aleksandar Vuchic and his ministers with the Croatians and their government and with the Albanians in Kosovo. 

Other examples here are genocide denial, watering down or justifying war crimes in a previous war, whitewashing and reinventing war criminals as national heroes and the demonizing, repressing and fearmongering about the political opposition and it's sympathizers in the country to the public in the media, in the press and in the political system. 

Edited July 14, 2021 by Milos Uzelac

[Natasha]

@Sri McDonald Trump Maharaj @Milos Uzelac

Thank you, both, for your feedback. I just turned in my essay 

[trenton]

@Natasha it is probably too late.

But anyway, I think a toxic behavior in politics is placing short term profits above human rights.  This involves modern slavery, poverty, starvation, and financial terrorism. 

Big corporations like Apple are responsible for overseas riots in factories because of a failure to pay workers a minimum wage. The United States imports over 91 billion dollars a year In electronic slave products due to the lack of business transparency in the production of these goods.

Grocery stores are responsible for throwing away tons of food rather than giving it to the homeless.  In fact there are sometimes armed guards hired by companies to protect dumpsters from homeless people through the threat of violence.  There is also a repetitive assertion that people are in poverty because they are lazy and morally deficient.

Private militaries are not held accountable for war crimes in the middle East or for vandalism in the United States.  Private militaries might tamper with cameras in America or shoot civilians in other countries because profit is frequently placed above human rights.  This leads to imperialism and the ones profiting from it are also lobbying the government like exon mobile.

According to Trump America should bomb the hell out of Iraq in order to pay ourselves back with oil.

Sorry it is late, but I hope your essay was good anyways.  Demonizing and fear mongering are also good things to focus on.  An example would be Ben Shapiro comparing the democrats and the left to terrorists.  This was when he was arguing that republicans were only chipping away at the progress made by the left and it results in a net gain for the democrats when they encroach like terrorists with human shields. Other conservatives criticize Shapiro for making his audience scared to death of the left.  I find it insane to think that he actually thinks that badly about the left.  I would have to dig to find this particular example of fear mongering, but there are other examples anyway.

Edited July 17, 2021 by trenton

[Danioover9000]

   Cognitive dissonance, and the entire list on fallacies is one large example, as usually a toxic party tends to keep looping fallacies in their behaviours.

[Natasha]

@Danioover9000 I've actually been contemplating on the role of cognitive dissonance in human behavior in general (esp in the light of Leo's recent video on social matrix), and yes, it can be a major factor of toxicity forcing the mind to conform and/or take sides out of the need to survive. If used consciously, though, cognitive dissonance can also be used to push the mind through doubts and fears and in the right direction when resolving an issue or making a decision, for example.