"I think more and more the political arena is about affect, or about emotion and grabbing one's attention and stirring up their anxieties and increasingly identifying ourselves as either in group or out group," Srinivasan said."If I'm for Trump, I'm against DeSantis. If I'm for Biden, I am against Trump. The idea of someone simply speaking to us in a rational, facts-based, almost non-charged way is increasingly a thing of the past.
He added that he doesn't like to"blame" social media or say it's the main culprit for behavior encountered in the political sphere, though Srinivasan acknowledges the proliferation of the online universe combined with our current technologies is exasperating the issue.According to Srinivasan, political villainization has accelerated and now"we are in a new era" of it.
"Disinformation is the perfect weapon or ally to a political environment, which now is all about emotion and the idea of the either in a group or against the group," he added."I do think all of this is very, very dangerous for a more people's driven democracy."