This month, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing about the rise of white nationalism and, as it was streamed online by YouTube, the platform was inundated with hate speech. The racist and anti-Semitic comments got so bad, YouTube disabled comments on the livestream.
This was just the latest in the seemingly constant string of examples that civil discourse in our democracy is suffering.
Carolyn Lukensmeyer is the executive director emerita of the National Institute For Civil Discourse (NICD) at the University of Arizona and, she said, since the 2016 election, the situation has only gotten worse.
Lukensmeyer was a guest on The Show a few years ago, after the 2016 election, when the NICD was calling for the restoration of civility in our political dialogue.
Carolyn Lukensmeyer Spoke with KJZZ's The Show about this today.
The NIDC has developed a docu-series that showcases the efforts of many Americans to improve civil discourse called “ Divided We Fall.”