“The purpose of propaganda is to make one set of people forget that the other sets of people are human.”
These few words from the late author Aldous Huxely are a simple mantra when it comes to understanding the dangers that ideologies on race, religion, gender and politics, can cause violent and catastrophic results for our society.
History constantly shows us how cruel and senseless the World Wars were, the thousands of innocent lives, lands and ancient history and culture stolen through colonisation and the after-effects we still feel today.
The horrors of the Holocaust, American slavery and apartheid have become painful reminders for the youth and the old who remember what life was like in these eras.
Now the younger generations can only imagine and gasp at the inhumanity of the Nazi’s and slave owners who dedicated their lives to terrifying another human being with whip lashes and death when they see artefacts of oppression such as gas chambers and the photograph of Hector Petersen when visiting history museums.
However, it seems this thirst for human cruelty is an indestructible weed that keeps growing and returning as the centuries pass.
The 1800’s can appear so barbaric and heartless when one thinks of the limited freedoms afforded women, the fact that they couldn’t vote and were told to enjoy being housewives.
Yet we see Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and harassment still terrorising our women of today in homes, shopping malls and work offices.
Now it appears eerily evident that there’s a cloud of cynicism and hostility hovering and brewing above our ever-evolving society in 2025.
I recall in the mid two thousands, ”trolling” was seen as a juvenile and loathsome act linked to cyberbullying and now it seems every second person is anonymously poking fun at someone online and saying their new song or outfit is “trash”.
These days it seems there’s so much contempt spreading on social media and bleeding into our social circles when it comes to opinions being shared on religion, gender, policies, climate change, wars and the list goes on.
The irony is that this kind of content brews hatred and can be triggering for some but the algorithms could care less how much harm and cyberbullying is being caused as it’s increasing traction and clicks for their platforms.
With the swipe of a finger violent content is more easily shared than ever on our cellphones, ranging from assassinations, attacks and rage-baiting arguments.
As we all know money talks, and why would the safety regulators on social media care if the youth or emotionally vulnerable are witnessing this disturbing videos when it boosts their profit and the number of users downloading their apps?
Often we see parents handing their children tablets to keep them entertained with some already having their own YouTube accounts and subscriptions.
Hopefully their profiles are on a restricted mode seeing how unfiltered and graphic content have become recently.
Attention spans are already endangered the more we absorb bite-sized reels and doom-scroll the nights away and numb our emotions.
Content creators are also feeding their audiences their ideologies, creating an endless stream of likes, shares and subscribers.
The more the messages resonates with their viewers, the more they wish to share this, connect with similarly minded individuals who can join their causes and “fight the enemy”.
Our society is more divided than ever during Donald Trump’s presidency with the Republicans and Democrats increasingly villifying and mocking each other online, in the news and even during family and friend debates at home.
It’s become impossible to avoid loud and heated arguments when the state of Palestine and war on Gaza has entered the conversation, with seemingly people preferring to argue their differing points on the issue instead of finding some common ground and understanding with one another.
The fact that women, children and fathers are being killed should bear the most prominence. Instead we find some people arguing it’s the “collateral damage” of war.
You also keep hearing about the radical right or left wing parties that are being categorised as terrorists who are a threat to our communities, young generations and could influence and “propagate” their philosophies to the world.
Each opposing thought group says the other is spreading false information instead of trying to see themselves in each other and trying to have a healthy and wholesome dialogue without demonising but rather understanding.
I fear that the more we misunderstand each other, the more we push each other away, making the act of conversation as risky and dangerous as walking on ice.
The Bible says: “Love thy neighbour” irrespective of race, religion and gender, three ancient words that should remind us to choose empathy and approach each other with grace, dignity and respect. Hopefully we can see a reflection of ourselves and instead of an “enemy”.
