A Nation Divided

More than anything, the spiral of silence for me personally explains how it's possible that humans can have this great desire to be a part of the majority and for the two-party system to still exist in this country. It also explains how the left and right, politically speaking, have only grown farther apart from each other with the rising use of social media.

In the chapter dealing with the Spiral, it is briefly mentioned that peoples' local group or what they view as their inner circle's majority of thought can influence the spiral just as much as, if not more than, what is viewed as the greater general public opinion.

As well, there is this notion that the more convicted a person is of their beliefs, political or otherwise, the more likely that person is to speak out, even if they are a part of the minority. In social media particularly this can lead to heated discussions or arguments between far-left and far-right thinking individuals, and increased exposure to more radical beliefs. Those who are more moderate not speaking out as much leads to a decrease in moderate beliefs being shown through social media.

If more and more people see more and more radical viewpoints from the group that is closest to them, whether it be on social media or geographically speaking, their own viewpoints are likely to be pushed farther to whichever extreme they are closer to. We then end up with two huge spirals of silence, one on the left and one on the right. Instead of being afraid to speak out against the other side, people end up being afraid to disagree with anything from their own side. Elected officials can fall prey to this as well, as they view their voter base as those most closely in line with the ideals set forth by the party. As a result, they may sign or even create legislation they do not personally agree with.

With our country in the volatile state it is, I'm curious to see if these spirals will break down in the next couple decades.