I’m 72 years old and I still haven’t figured out how to consume media. I’ve never been a big fan of television. At one point years ago, friends gave us a television set because they thought that we needed to have one. I watched reruns of M*A*S*H in the middle of the night when I was up with our daughter, who wasn’t a very good sleeper when she was tiny. I am easily distracted by television, so I have never used television as background, as is the case in some homes where I have visited. As a pastor, I was distracted by the constant television in nursing homes and care centers, and often turned the sets off when I visited folks in those locations. After our children grew up and moved into their own homes, we haven’t had a television in our house.

The Internet, however, has blurred the line between computers and televisions. I have two 32” monitors at my desk, and they are large enough to watch videos for entertainment. When I am writing, I enjoy being able to have an internet browser open on one monitor and the document I’m writing on another. Sometimes I compare two drafts of the same document. When I am on a video conference, I can devote one monitor to the conference and have documents open on the other one for easy reference.

I watch YouTube videos for entertainment. I don’t subscribe to YouTube channels, except for our grandson’s channel, and he doesn’t post regularly. However, there are several entertainers whose regular posts I often watch. I don’t think it is much different from folks who watch television for entertainment.

On the other hand, I know a lot of people who have giant televisions in their homes. They would consider my computer monitors to be small. And it is common for people to have televisions connected to fancy sound systems that rival commercial theaters. They can experience the art of content creators differently from how I do with my computer.

I watch a few news programs on the Internet, and from time to time, I watch monologues from late-night entertainers, though I’m not a regular fan of any of them. I prefer to get my news from reading, and there are several online news sources that I check regularly. I scan headlines in media like the New York Times and Washington Post most days and read a few articles from time to time. My favorite news sites at the moment are CBC, BBC, and NPR.

One of the reasons I shy away from the late-night entertainers is that I’m put off by the frequent use of what I consider to be offensive language. Mostly, it is the occasional curse word and pretty mild compared with contemporary movies.

Despite my choices, however, it is clear that social norms have shifted when it comes to language and the way people talk about others. Political candidates don’t shy away from cursing. Even dropping an occasional f-bomb doesn’t garner much media attention. And sometimes politicians use that language to generate press attention.

So I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me that there are internet chat groups where racist and homophobic comments are not only posted, but encouraged. The Young Republican chats exposed by Politico in the past week are genuinely awful. Some politicians are dismissing praise for Hitler, comments about African Americans as monkeys, and violent threats as simply the indiscretion of young people. Aside from the fact that you have to be my age to see people in their 40s as “young,” the language is offensive, and dismissing such language is precisely the wrong response from adults. As a youth minister, I intervened and corrected the youth who made racist or sexist jokes. I tried to create a culture of caring for others.

Politicians, however, seem not only to tolerate but also encourage insults about gay and Black people. Praise for Hitler and the devices of anti-semitic genocide are grossly offensive to me, but seemingly easily dismissed by politicians in press conferences.

Although acceptance of offensive language seems rampant among right-wing commentators and Republican politicians, it is not confined to those on the red side of the aisle. Jay Jones, Democratic candidate for Attorney General in Virginia, texted about a political opponent deserving “two bullets.” A direct threat of violence should never be considered acceptable.

The problem for society is much deeper than the political scandal of the day, however. The second term of the current president is destroying social norms. When the leader at the top mocks those with disabilities, makes disparaging comments about women, GLBTQ folk, and racial and ethnic groups, it is clear that social norms are not just shifting. They are being destroyed. It isn’t just one chat group exposed by Politico. There are dozens of influencers who are feeding hate speech. And it is a direct reflection of a president who has shattered civility, called for violence against his opponents, ordered military force against protestors, targeted journalists, and regularly abused people because of their race, nationality, disability, and sex. Beyond that, he demands constant expressions of loyalty from those around him. They are encouraged to go even further than he has. Young Republicans speaking positively about gas chambers is not an anomaly. It is the direct result of a culture that demands loyalty above personal responsibility.

I confess that my response to this has been to avoid it. I don’t post to chat groups very often, and when I do, I am cautious about my choice of words. When I encounter offensive speech online, I tend to avoid returning to those sites. I don’t spend much time on Facebook, but when I do, I find I click the “see less of this type of post” frequently. While I am quick to confront those who use offensive language in face-to-face encounters, I tend to look away when I find such language online.

I continue to struggle with media. I hope I never get as comfortable with it as some of our politicians seem to have become.