ROANOKE, VA – Over the last decade, the political landscape has undergone significant changes, with deep divisions growing and playing out more publicly than ever before.
“We are at a point in time in our country’s history where politics has a higher attention than it’s probably ever had before,” Dr. Cayce Myers said.
From the shooting of Charlie Kirk to attacks targeting two lawmakers in Minnesota to the shooting of President Trump on the campaign trail, acts of political violence are increasingly part of the national conversation.
“Is this a symptom of a larger problem with national political discourse?” Kirk said.
Myers says much of the change is tied to social media.
“Social does obviously present the ability to engage more, but it also presents the opportunity for people to engage in a much more aggressive way,” he said.
10 News political analyst Dr. Ed Lynch explains the immediate nature of online coverage amplifies reactions
“There’s no hiding it, there’s no delaying it. And a lot of that is before there’s been any thought or any analysis or any examination of the evidence, so people are very quick to draw conclusions,” Lynch said.
According to Myers, social media also makes it easier for people to lose sight of the person behind the posts.
“There is a move within social media to really dehumanize the person behind what they’re saying. As we’ve learned with this event with Kirk and the tragedy around it is he has a family, he has children, but that often times gets stripped away in the larger political discussion where you see someone as just a symbol,” Myers said.
Constant repetition online can make extreme ideas feel more normal, even when they involve threats or acts of violence.
“And it doesn’t necessarily lead to acts like this, but it makes more and more people think that acts like this may be okay,” Lynch said.
When it comes to violence, Lynch says more voices are able to chime in than ever before — making the stakes higher and the consequences more real.
“Virtually anyone who wants to have an opinion on this can have that opinion amplified all over the world,” Lynch said.