The health crisis has made it possible to shine the spotlight on a problem even bigger than a pandemic: the collective disgust of Quebecers. People no longer trust politics, no longer trust the media and, even worse, no longer trust science. Our fellow citizens have swallowed so many disappointments that they are sick to their hearts.
This overflow is beginning to spill over into our society. This systematic mistrust can lead to major problems. Being nuanced in the hope of rekindling our collective trust is the only remedy for dealing with endemic mistrust.
“The politicians are all scammers”, “the media is lying to us”, “the vaccine will kill us all”. These statements, extremely stereotyped, perhaps evoke for you the Freedom Convoy and other anti-vax, anti-vaccination passport movements, in short, the “anti-everything” movements.
These movements, imbued with extreme distrust, are symptomatic of this societal disgust.
Unfortunately, we must admit that what may seem like 19 waves of COVID-19 (we are only on the sixth) does not help us to keep our heads above water. Let’s recognize that the repetitive, but illusory impression of seeing light at the end of the tunnel of the pandemic does not really play in favor of our collective confidence.
Uncertainty and bitterness
By taking a step back, we will understand that the people who took the road to Ottawa last February are part of the same society as those who preferred not to go there. They are not necessarily the villains of the story (not all of them, at least). They are probably as scared as many of us, because, after all, the accumulation of sanitary measures did not offer a glimpse of lifelines.
Repeated press conferences, political sermons, continuously publicized paternalism; all the ingredients were there to feed the seeds of our collective disgust. Still, politicians and a large proportion of the population did not see coming, or even understand, the often understandable uncertainty and bitterness that protesters felt.
The media have a vital role to play in our dear democracy, that of informing. They deserve the credibility that their role confers on them, but that does not mean that we should consider the news presented to us as always being neutral and entirely representative of reality.
The news makes people react when it is sensational and makes less waves when it is nuanced. However, the accumulation of sensational news may dazzle listeners and news readers so much that they struggle to see the nuances behind them. Media can amplify this phenomenon by presenting the news in a divisive way, with winners and losers. In reality, the news is much more complex. It can also be problematic not to be nuanced ourselves when consuming information. For example, an angle taken by a media when presenting daily news can unintentionally sow uncertainty and mistrust in the minds of some listeners, readers and viewers.
With a little hindsight, information consumers can understand that not everything is black and white. By apprehending the news with nuance, it is possible to regain confidence. The adoption of this behavior, when consuming information or news, could allow some to understand that the vaccine is not the tool of “bad guys” who lie to us, but that of science which tries somehow to help us.