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WAs it is often called “conspiracy theory”, it is perhaps the most accurate name possible for the way the public appears today as a whole. Whether it’s Corona, refugees, identity politics, or, in America, Trump: in many conflicts, opposing camps move into worlds of communication so different that they can only interpret each other as the result of conspiracies and thus, not as arguments and facts. more achievable. Not only is the common ground of what can be considered real broken, but also the ground of a rationality shared by all, within which a dispute of different points of view would be possible. The appeal to universal reason is often discredited as a particularly nefarious stunt by the other party. Instead, the terms and ideas serve only as scent marks with which individual camps identify themselves and their counterparts, as a means not for discussion but for mutual isolation.
The American publicist Anne Applebaum recently pointed out in “The Atlantic” magazine that the different tribal spheres into which the public has been divided not only produce different opinions, but often also different media and different facts generated by them accordingly. Simply referring to the facts or the power of a better argument seems increasingly powerless and naive; there is no longer the framework of a discursive order determined by rationality in which such categories could develop their effect.
So what needs to be done? How do you escape the dead ends of mutually isolated tribal worlds? Above all: How can a common rationality be reapplied as a standard for public debate? In his article, Applebaum mentions the US website “Republican Voters Against Trump” as an example of successful infiltration of the current isolationist. The site gathers short video clips in which veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, evangelicals and others with a conservative Republican stench justify in their own sometimes awkward words why they will not vote for Trump. A Roger from Arizona who voted Republican all his life says, “Character is extremely important.” A Pam from Colorado urges her fellow Christians to stop believing in Trump because the evil in the world cannot be fought with more evil. The possibility seems to be to stay true to the Republican tribe with all its values, codes and lifestyles by realizing that Trump, who is instrumentalizing all this, is betraying it. By speaking from inside the Republican world, the website manages to break through the usual stimulus-response mechanisms that previously formed a barrier against more general perceptions (Trump may be a liar, but at least he’s authentic in that sense that protects my identity. ).
