Unfortunately, we live in the age of Twitter-driven politics – The Nevada Independent

Even during the best of times, Twitter isn’t exactly the ideal online destination for finding nuanced and thoughtful analysis of complex social problems — which makes the political discussions that emanate from that platform unbearably cartoonish. Doom-scrolling on the social media giant reveals a parade of ideologically vapid political soundbites—outrage manufactured to generate retweets and clicks rather than political enlightenment or persuasion. Given the degree to which the broader political culture seems to take its cue from such a procession of self-righteous indignation, it’s easy to see why the unadulterated partisan hate propagated on social media has been credited with increasing the political chasm that divides Americans.  After all, rushing to virtue signal one’s political allegiance with hyperbole is an increasingly standard way of reacting to the world nowadays on social media.  Such online political noise was almost unbearable Friday, after Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty by a jury of his peers. The online reactions to the verdict were predictably divisive — as if two halves of America had watched two entirely different trials. Scrolling through the plethora of uninformed, yet highly opinionated hot takes on the subject was an act of voyeurism to a sickening display of political…
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