Alex Jones, Tomi Lahren, and Milo Yiannopoulos are three names you've probably heard of.
Tomi Lahren is the conservative firecracker known for being the angriest person on the internet. However, she's also known for making false statements, peddling hate speech, and speaking in platitudes rather than specifics. She claims that Black Lives Matter, which is a civil rights organization, is 'the new KKK,' a white supremacist organization that, to this day, terrorizes, tortures, and murders people of color.
She claims that any discussion about racism and the persecution of African Americans is unnecessary, and is only "ripping off the historical band-aid." In response to a speech at the BET awards by Jesse Williams, during which he discussed the urgent need for criminal justice reform, Tomi responded by asking Jesse indirectly "Do you know how many of our ancestors fought in the Civil War to free your ancestors?" Further, Tomi dismisses the basic science of climate change and pokes fun at the 98% of the world's leading scientists who have confirmed it's real, man-made problem.
Milo Yiannopoulos is a British guy whose last name you stopped trying to pronounce two paragraphs ago. He peddles a variety of falsehoods and blatant hate speech. He claims "gay rights make us dumber," says rape culture is "a fantasy," that transgender people are "mentally ill," and got banned from Twitter for inciting racist trolls to attack Ghostbusters actor and SNL star Leslie Jones with racist tweets, in addition to calling her 'illiterate.' He regularly promotes white nationalism and white identity too. Most recently, Milo resigned from his job as an editor at Breitbart, was booted from speaking at CPAC, and lost a book deal in February for condoning sexual relations with boys as young as 13, and defending sexually abusive priests. He even went as far as to credit one priest with helping him perfect his own sexual skills.Alex Jones is the radio host from Texas who's always locked in a perpetual state of paranoia and screaming on his radio show and Youtube channel, Info Wars. He is one of the world's most well-known conspiracy theorists and his beliefs orbit around one central idea: The global elites are hell-bent on eliminating over 80% of the world's population and putting those who survive into prison camps. Yes, that's actually what he believes.
In addition, he says that recent terrorist attacks and mass shootings like the Pulse nightclub attack and the Sandyhook massacre were staged (false-flag) attacks by the government to limit the rights of citizens. The reason you might have heard of Alex Jones or Infowars before reading this article is probably because of Donald Trump, who appeared on Jones' radio show during the presidential campaign, and often retweets and quotes him.
Tomi Lahren, Milo, and Alex Jones engage in a combination of conspiracy theories, hate speech, outright falsehoods, pandering, and racism in many cases. They aren't trying to make you a well-informed citizen, or explain complex issues to you. They just want to piss people off. They thrive off of their comment sections that get inundated with negative reactions. If you're a fan of them, they don't care. They have duped you. To them, a fan is simply a messenger, another 'like' and a 'share,' that they desperately need to go viral. They only want the negative reactions, or the 'liberal tears,' as Tomi might describe them.
One doesn't have to take too much time to debunk their ideas and explain the psyche of people like Tomi Lahren, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Alex Jones, but there's a bigger picture here and it needs to be addressed.
The reality is that watching, reading and listening to people like Tomi, Milo, and Jones polarizes the shit out of you. It forces you to shut out reality and pushes you into a bubble that's impermeable. It doesn't allow any real facts or ideas to penetrate it and, above all else, it's vehemently opposed to anything resembling a rational and productive conversation.
Yet, for one reason or another, people still attempt to have rational conversations and debates with people like Tomi, Milo, and Alex Jones, and they lose every time. Why? It's not because people like Tomi, Milo, and Jones are incapable of rational thought, it's that they have no interest in it.
Nothing that's presented to them, no expert, no academic, no peer-reviewed article, no scientific report that proves them wrong, or even God, himself is ever going to bring them out of that impermeable bubble and back to reality because they don't want reality. They want their reality and all the angry Facebook comments, protests, and 'liberal tears,' that come with it.
So, where does this leave us? What are you supposed to do to avoid becoming more polarized? How do you become better informed?
The answer is more simple than you might think.
If Tomi Lahren, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Alex Jones make you want to set yourself on fire and leap into oncoming traffic then you need to do the following three things to help bring just a little fucking sanity back to our discourse (and to yourself).
1. Stop taking the bait. Stop attempting to engage in a rational debate with them. They have no interest in that. They live for your critical comments, and that's it.
2. Educate yourself using reputable sources that don't have names like "The other 98%," "Occupy Democrats," or "GOPLOL."
3. Read this article again because I know how hard it's going to be for you not to write a damn essay on the next Tomi Lahren video your friend shares on Facebook.
If you're an avid consumer of people like Tomi Lahren, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Alex Jones, and you find yourself nodding along as they talk and sharing their content, then you need to do the following three things to help bring just a little fucking sanity back to our discourse (and to yourself).
1. Avoid them as much as you can. Their speech is extremely toxic and counterproductive.
2. Educate yourself using reputable sources that don't have names likes "Liberal Logic 101," "Conservative Fringe Line," or "Breitbart."
3. Get your news from actual journalists and form your opinions based on the information they provide you. While it might be hard for you to believe, CNN, BBC News, the New York Times, NBC, ABC, and other major news outlets are not lying to you. They are the ones operating in reality and the ones qualified to bring you the truth like they do every day.
Now, get to it. The sooner, the better.
