The stench of toxic politics
If words had a smell, you can bet that it would be an unpleasant one for many of them. The stench, however, would not really emanate from the words themselves, but from the manner in which they are delivered, from the attitude of the person using them. It might be macho and threatening: “You’re trash… Get lost…” The person who spoke these words recently in a social media post referring to a retired police officer also had the look to match the verbal swagger: a tight T-shirt showing off his biceps, an angry frown, a slightly bored demeanor, resting a cheek in the palm of his hand.
A few weeks earlier, another specimen of such machismo bullied a female colleague in Parliament to the extent of making another female colleague – from the same party as himself, we might add – burst into tears. He then went on to accuse the colleague who reacted to the harassment of shady dealings and kickbacks, also taking to social media to do so.
The antics of the elder have borne fruit by helping breed a new generation of cannibals of politics and society at large
Both of these people are members of Greece’s main opposition party. One is young, an international basketball player, who was recently elected to the European Parliament; the other is middle-aged, an experienced doctor and seasoned politician, who has kept himself in the limelight with such antics for the past decade or so.
Both represent SYRIZA and both have adopted a personal idiom that defines their public and social media appearances. To sum up their styles, in short, we’d call them both cannibals.
It may be fair to say that the antics of the elder have borne fruit by helping breed a new generation of cannibals of politics and society at large. Of course, like every new version of anything, the 34-year-old is even more vulgar and foul-mouthed than the 59-year-old. Both are treated to invective-filled drubbings online, and both answer in kind, perpetuating the cycle.
The question, however, is should the party be doing something to stop this cycle? We are, after all, talking about the country’s main opposition and politicians who represent it and Greece both here and abroad. Just saying. Maybe proper politics should stop being subservient to gutter politics, which keeps perpetuating the stench that keeps the media mill rolling.
How can politics be exercised and strengthened with so much toxicity? Politics is something that requires backbone, hard work, knowledge and influence; not chest-thumping and vulgarity.
