Obama says a drift towards extremism is not inevitable

“It turns out that the reptilian side of our brain really gets attracted to anger, fear, resentment,” the former US president said of social media, on a speaking tour with stops in Belfast and Manchester.

— Barack Obama

Background

He said that after the Second World War, the US and Europe set rules on propaganda and big lies, and that today “we have not chosen to do that.”

Obama warned that people forget the past and treat hateful words against immigrants, Jews, Black people or gay people as “just talk.”

On hope

He called hope an active, “almost theological” choice, and said that when people act on it, things do get better over time.