April 2, 2024 Written by Hingham School Committee Reelection Candidate Tim Dempsey
I originally decided to run for Hingham School Committee in January 2021. It was a very divisive time, with Hingham residents particularly entrenched in opposing camps: pro-mask vs. anti-mask, BLM vs. “All Lives Matter,” Trump vs. Biden. Face-to-face classes and distance classes. Seeing how the community is talking about teachers during the pandemic made me think, as a public school teacher, that I could bring some understanding to many of these issues and lower the temperature of public debate. Ta. The Hingham Anchor literally published my campaign announcement during the January 6th attack on the Capitol, so I clicked on the Anchor article to see what kind of reaction my announcement received. And I remember clicking on the CNN article and watching the violence unfold in Washington.
Throughout my first three years on the school board, the divisions in our community have not diminished one bit. A fact that has always persisted during my first term is that every issue that comes before the committee is resolved in two completely separate conversations with her. One of these conversations will take place in a committee or board meeting at City Hall, and the other will take place online. Only one of these conversations has the power to affect real change. Only one of these conversations counts as actual citizen participation. There is a saying that Hingham relies on volunteers. The reverse is also true: Hingham is not a fan of keyboard warriors, people who take over online discussions and use the most extreme rhetoric to present any issue. Not only does this online conversation not affect real change in Hingham, it distracts and prevents us from actually working on the issues we care about. It feels like civic engagement without actually accomplishing anything.
Before I ran for school committee, I was completely part of this ecosphere. I am the ultimate keyboard warrior, more deeply rooted in the social divisions of the time than anyone else, easily and loudly reacting to Facebook posts without caring how my words will be received. was doing. For example, there was a debate about flying the LGBTQIA Pride flag at City Hall, and the select committee decided that flying the flag would place undue responsibility on Mr. Hingham, and instead issued a statement celebrating Pride Month. announced. I posted on a Facebook discussion board about what a shameful disgrace the elected board members were. I called them cowards for not flying the flag. Writing the post felt like civic engagement, but also the need to actually problem-solve to find a way to fly a flag that allays the selection committee’s concerns or truly engage with those who disagree with me. There was no. My post didn’t change town policy or even address the issue in a very productive way. To this day, no Pride flag is flown at City Hall. But more than I hurt a cause I believed in, I hurt relationships in the city. I knew elected officials who later told me how hurtful (and frankly untrue) my words were. And it took years of trying to rebuild some of those relationships.
Another time, someone I was casually friends with around town posted a supercut YouTube video of “Drag Queen Story Hour.” This clip uses a decontextualized image of an innocent and fun way to engage children in reading, implying that it is something vile, sexual, or abusive. Ta. How I believe this video distorts and distorts reality, and how videos like the one she posted implying that LGBTQIA people are predators, is a big no-no for me and my family in Hingham. You could have worked with her to explain how you were making her life difficult. (I am gay and have a close family member who is transgender.) We could have talked about how this rhetoric has real-world implications for me. But instead, the keyboard warrior in me came out and demanded that she delete the video, going on about how bigoted her post was and how bigoted she must be. Ta. This was the worst situation for me. My reaction to her video was that it was a missed opportunity to have a real conversation that could have been a teachable moment that may have (or may not have) changed her thinking about the issue. That was it. Of course, the conversation never got that far, so I don’t know yet what her actual opinion is. My response shut down the exchange and led to an online war between individuals. Rather than trying to have a real conversation, I tried to shame my girlfriend into doing what I wanted and delete her video. Needless to say, I didn’t change her mind, she didn’t delete the video, and I lost her friend. My words were not just ineffective, they actually caused harm.
Before I became a school committee member, I believed that online Facebook conversations fueled real-world conversations, and that town leaders avidly read message boards and took guidance from them. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I have never spent so much time online since I have been on the School Committee. So do most of Hingham’s elected officials. This is not only because online discussions are often divisive, harmful, and often aimed at humiliating and shaming those with whom we disagree. Because online discussions are distracting. The people making the decisions just aren’t there. Facebook, where misinformation is rampant, is a particularly bad place to get a clear picture of what’s going on in Hingham. I no longer jump into the comments section of Facebook posts. Doing so is frustrating and inefficient. You can jump in and try to correct misinformation, but there are so many keyboard warriors that it becomes impossible to engage in discussion or fact-check even innocent mistakes. I am. Rather, they double down on the misinformation, the comment section becomes a toxic stew of she said nonsense, he said she said nonsense, and discussions become points about personal insults and shaming people you disagree with. It will muddy the water. The purpose of online discussions is to silence people, not bring them along.
Amanda Ripley’s book High Conflict explains this phenomenon in more detail than I can. She speaks of a “conflict entrepreneur” who creates conflict and dissent for her own purposes. Online discussion groups, especially unmoderated discussion groups, are inevitably controlled by conflict entrepreneurs who talk about things in the most extreme ways possible and escalate the conflict. These include personal attacks, blanket statements about our town as a whole, and false assumptions about others’ motives. Online debates are not only a sideshow, but a very unpleasant sideshow, so it’s no wonder most Hingham elected officials don’t participate. This is a sideshow intended to make town politics more difficult, more unpleasant, and less grounded in reality. This situation is further exacerbated by the new ability to post anonymously, which completely separates accountability from public comments. Personal attacks and misinformation are scary to contend with, but it’s even worse when the poster is anonymous.
Spring is typically a lively election season in Hingham, with campaign signs lining the streets and candidates standing out at garbage dumps, but this year there will be at least one contested election for every office in town. voters have no real choice at the polling place. In 2024, Mr. Hingham will be absent from the election period, and our democracy will deteriorate further. I think this is because people saw online discussions and said “no thank you” to volunteering to his community online participating in this way.
Normally, I would be here asking you to vote and imploring you to come to the polls on April 27th. Given that voters don’t have many choices this year, I ask a different question. If online discussions are your primary way of engaging with your community, be sure to talk to people, attend committee and board meetings (many of which are available online on Zoom), and read official news sources like The Anchor. , speak directly to your community. elected officials. Misinformation is rampant and no one has fact-checked it, so take what you read online with a grain of salt. As my kids say, hit the grass once in a while, go offline, and engage in real conversation. If I can change the way I interact with the online world, everyone in Hingham can. Instead, while I still hold passionate beliefs about schools and education, I intend to engage respectfully and productively with everyone and find common ground even when we disagree. is. I’m here to take you. Even if we disagree, we won’t lock you up. Email, call, or visit your elected officials. Because one thing I can absolutely promise you is that if you give me advice or feedback in the comments section of a Facebook discussion group, I won’t read it.
