9 October 2020 (posted on 27 November 2020)
At a talk yesterday afternoon, Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, warned attendees that a lack of trust in experts in American society puts people in “physical and moral danger.” The mayor cites our increasingly divided social environment along with partisan media and social media algorithms that take us away from people who are different from ourselves as why we have become so mistrustful.
The Boston Globe’s Bina Venkataraman talked to Buttigieg, a former 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary candidate, about his new book, “Trust: America’s Best Chance”, this afternoon on a Zoom call where members of the public were invited to join-in. The talk is a part of a series of talks called “Op-Talks” where members of the Boston Globe’s editorial team interview “experts” about relevant issues. The Globe partnered with The Boston Book Festival which for the purposes of this talk.
Buttigieg said social media companies whose business models allegedly thrive on controversy and are not conducive to rooting out misinformation. He also criticized partisan media outlets, such as Fox News, for producing an environment where people with specific ideologies are not exposed to other worldviews. He explained that he goes on Fox News regularly so he can explain his more liberal views to people who are not often exposed to other opinions.
He also explained that we need to find ways to make our “circles of belonging” overlap to restore trust. Right now, according to the former mayor, our “circles of belonging” are increasingly concentric meaning that we are not letting people from outside our respective ideologies in. We need more overlap in our “circles of belonging” because shared experiences produce more trust.
Journalists also have a role to play in restoring trust, according to Buttigieg. He said that while working in the military he needed to separate intelligence from information. Journalists have a similar role in making sense of information that they find, according to the former mayor.
In this environment of mistrust, it is easier to reach people who may be receptive to deceptive messages. He says that foreign adversaries are taking advantage of this to further divide us, especially on social media.
He also spoke about the alleged kidnapping plot against Governor Whitmer of Michigan which he described as “extremely disturbing.” He asserted that President Trump’s tone surrounding lockdowns and the governor on Twitter, in part, could have encouraged the plot.
Luciano Cesta 