Dr. Michael Kenney, Professor of International Affairs and Director of the Matthew B. Ridgway Center for International Security Studies, has appeared in interviews with KDKA-TV, 90.5 WESA, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and Public Source this week to discuss the impacts of polarized political rhetoric in the wake of the shooting at last weekend’s campaign rally.
“The rhetoric definitely plays a part in this. It helps polarize the political climate and, unfortunately, for a small number of people, it can act as an accelerant to going beyond radical thoughts and ideas,” he said.
Kenney, an expert in political violence and extremism, spoke to WESA about the particular challenge social media presents in amplifying politically charged speech, and discussed possible policy solutions to the algorithms that create these “online echo chambers.” However, he remained optimistic, saying that as a society we can draw upon lessons learned from previous challenging moments in our nation’s history to move forward.
“We’ve been here before. We’ve gotten through it before… It’s up to all of us to build the political culture that we want to have.”