Campaign ads teach us how to spread hate

Following the killing of a known conservative speaker and influencer, we’re being inundated by politicians and commenters with high-minded calls for civility. “We’re all Americans,” they proclaim, adding that “This is not who we are,” and other well-meaning clichés. The fact is, they’re the ones who brought most of this rancor and anger to the present terrible level.

Every couple of years, depending on election cycles, we’re all buried in campaign ads and political commercials attacking real and imagined opposition forces, parties, or candidates. All are soaked in the most vile and disgusting level of lies, half-truths, and derision usually reserved for mass murderers, genocidal dictators, or the devil himself.

We’re exposed to most of this via TV ads and direct mail created by professional campaign agencies who have learned that sensationalism, twisted facts, and vitriolic sound bites are the most effective toward gaining our collective attention — even for only a minute or two.

No longer restricted to TV and mail, these constant and repetitive characterizations of opponents as sub-human, evil, or uncaring monsters invade our lives through social media, emails, and endless text messages which pump the personal attack sewage throughout the day and night. We can’t seem to escape it.

These ads and twisted messages dominate all media sources on a 24/7 basis for months and months, spreading hate at the expense of any truthful and civil discourse for voters to consider.

If elected incumbents or wannabe leaders really want to tone down the rhetoric, they should demonstrate that through the billion-dollar industry of campaign advertising that has set the standard for hateful discourse responsible for most of our current level of incivility. The misinformation and hate mongering which precedes our state and national campaigns day after day and night after night have normalized the strategy of creating hate for the opposition while distorting the issues.

Americans are vulnerable to campaign advertising because campaign advertising is not interested in truth but what gets our attention. These days, it’s not hard to understand why the smell of sewage gets our attention more than the smell of roses.

Let’s see which — if any — candidates, when they “approve this message,” do it with pride and an attempt at leadership or continue to just hold their noses.