Dr. Kiran Dintiala argues that social media reactivity is fueling political hatred and violence. He calls for open dialogue and deliberate practice of calmness, and says political leaders need to model unity instead.
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Dr. Kiran Dintiala (also known as "Dr. Kalm").
Surviving the Trump Presidency.
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Of course, these days it seems that people are more divided than ever when it comes to politics. And dealing with people who have differing opinions can be a real challenge for some. And with us now to talk about this is Dr. Kiran Dintiala. Thank you so much, Doc. You're also known to many of us as Dr. Kalm, which really pertains to what we're trying to figure out. There's such divisiveness here in the country right now, difference of opinions, as we just said, regarding politics, and people feel so upset one way or the other. How do we deal with this discourse? And perhaps more important, how do we get over it and start working together as these United States?
Absolutely, I agree with you. It's really unfortunate what happened this morning. And this is not an isolated event. These things keep happening almost every day, you know.
Well, how do we stop it? You know, it's not easy, but I think it starts, as I said, with maybe as you, you know, you're here to talk about the fact that. Does it start with discussion first and a sharing of ideas and more important, an acceptance of differing ideas and opinions?
Absolutely. We need honesty in expressing ourselves and see what's going on in this country and have an open discussion. Hey, look, this is not going away, so we need to do something about it. Number one is to. We need to find a way to curb the hatred in people's minds, in their hearts.
And that's the hardest thing to do, isn't it? Because it's such a personal thing. But as we know, hate gets us nowhere. It achieves nothing. It creates huge problems. And we're seeing that right now in this country, aren't we?
That's true. And one of the reasons, I think the social media these days has been a breeding mess for this hatred, unfortunately, people can say whatever they want. Something could happen some 10,000 miles away from here, and then you're looking on your cell phone, and then you could simply get acted up, become reactive and do something bad.
So how do we turn the tide?
You know, one of the most important things is that people need to learn to practice calmness. And too many people are reactive. When something happens automatically, it's like a switch turns on in their mind and just go do something impulsively. So we need to control those negative emotions, in fact, dissolve the negativity and avoid spilling it over. Because if you hold that negativity, that hatred within for too long, it is going to spill over eventually.
And we see all the bad that it's creating and all the horrific incidents that have been going on that are so sad and so tragic that people are saying enough is enough, it's got to stop. You've got a book out as well Surviving the Trump presidency and you said if you wrote a book, if Hillary Clinton had become president, you would have written Surviving the Clinton Presidency. So it's just a matter of trying to bring this ideas together that even if we don't agree with each other, we can work together absolutely peacefully.
Absolutely. And what's his name? Paul Ryan. Speaker Paul Ryan and Nancy Pelosi both came together this morning and gave a wonderful message and we want that more in this country. Like, you know, we stand together and you know, an attack on Guang is an attack on all people, all Americans.
The time it is now to turn that tide and work together.
Yeah, absolutely.
Dr. Kieran Dinsiala, thank you so much. We really appreciate your time.
