The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com.
As your state representative, I spend the bulk of my legislative time focused on things that I hear directly from you that matter most. Those are usually issues like fixing our roads, lowering our taxes, and helping make housing more affordable. When my wife sends me to the grocery store, she knows it’s an hour or more process because I will undoubtedly run into someone with something on their mind. I love it. Real people, sharing real views.
What I rarely do these days is spend time on social media. I’d extend that sentiment to mainstream media as well. Why? It has all become so toxic and misguided. I’m not sure the truth matters to either platform anymore. It has become entirely a business of clicks. Whatever makes you click their articles drives their revenue and only further separates us.
In today’s hyper-connected world, we are more informed than ever, yet somehow more confused, angry, and divided than any generation before us. The reason is not a mystery, it’s manipulation. The media and social media platforms, once celebrated as champions of free speech and public discourse, have become industrial-scale echo chambers that distort truth, amplify division, and reduce us to the worst versions of ourselves. Don’t believe me, go to any of your local ‘community’ pages on Facebook. It’s bad.
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Mainstream media doesn’t profit from unity; it profits from conflict. Headlines are crafted not to inform, but to provoke. Algorithms reward virality, not accuracy. The more emotionally charged a headline, the more clicks, shares, and advertising dollars it generates. Social media platforms are no better. They’ve been engineered to feed us content that reinforces our existing biases, pushes us toward extremes, and keeps us hooked in a never-ending loop of tribalism and toxicity.
Social media platforms thrive on the dopamine rush of indignation. Their algorithms are designed to stoke division by surfacing the most controversial voices, not the most thoughtful ones. When calm, respectful dialogue is drowned out by rage and ideological purity tests, we stop seeing our neighbors as fellow Americans and start seeing them as enemies.
Look around. The average American agrees on more than we disagree on: family, opportunity, safety, dignity, and freedom. But these commonalities are buried under a pile of media-driven wedge issues. Instead of addressing real challenges like inflation, education, national security, or the crisis at the border, we’re baited into national shouting matches over fringe topics that affect 0.01% of the population. These issues are then inflated, politicized, and used to paint entire swaths of Americans as morally bankrupt or hopelessly ignorant.
It’s not just dishonest, it’s deliberate.
When we’re divided, we’re distracted. And when we’re distracted, the institutions meant to serve us, government, media, big tech—can operate with impunity. They want us too busy fighting each other to notice corruption, incompetence, and the erosion of our freedoms.
Despite what we’re fed, the soul of America still beats strong. You can see it everywhere, like with the hardworking dad coaching his kid’s baseball team, or the immigrant mom starting a small business, or the soldier overseas missing Christmas, or the nurse pulling a double shift. These are the people who are America. They are not represented by the sensationalized clickbait we see so much of. They are not reflected in the screaming heads on cable news.
We must reclaim our identity, not as Republicans or Democrats, not as coastal elites or flyover country, but as Americans. We must stop letting people who utilize large platforms, but face no accountability, define us.
America was built on shared values: liberty, responsibility, merit, faith, and perseverance. We’ve always disagreed, that is truly the beauty of our republic. But disagreement without dignity is destruction. We need to restore the ability to debate without dehumanizing. To differ without despising. To critique without canceling.
I look forward to seeing you again soon at the grocery store and hearing what you have to say. God bless.
– Zimmerman, R-River Falls, represents the 30th Assembly District.
