Hillary Clinton warns social fabric issues 'I diagnosed in the 1990s' are worse than she imagined

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned a "social media echo chamber" and "right-wing media machine" that are byproducts of widespread loneliness are threatening democracy in America, saying problems she "diagnosed" a generation ago as the first lady are worse than ever.

Clinton penned a piece in The Atlantic, "The Weaponization of Loneliness," which claimed that "we need to rebuild our communities" in order to defend America against "those who would exploit our social disconnection," and discussed her worries when she and her husband Bill were in the White House.

"Nearly 30 years later, it’s clear that the problems I diagnosed in the 1990s ran deeper than I realized, and were more dire than I could have imagined," Clinton wrote. "The more we live in social-media echo chambers, the less we trust one another, and the more we struggle to find common ground with or feel empathy for people who have different perspectives and experiences.

"The question that preoccupied me and many others over much of the past eight years is how our democracy became so susceptible to a would-be strongman and demagogue. The question that keeps me up at night now—with increasing urgency as 2024 approaches—is whether we have done enough to rebuild our defenses or whether our democracy is still highly vulnerable to attack and subversion."

HILLARY CLINTON SHREDDED FOR TWEET BLAMING 'MAGA REPUBLICANS' FOR HEAT WAVE: 'SHE'S BROKEN'

"There’s reason for concern: the influence of dark money and corporate power, right-wing propaganda and misinformation, malign foreign interference in our elections, and the vociferous backlash against social progress. The ‘vast right-wing conspiracy’ has been of compelling interest to me for many years," she continued. "But I’ve long thought something important was missing from our national conversation about threats to our democracy. Now recent findings from a perhaps unexpected source—America’s top doctor—offer a new perspective on our problems and valuable insights into how we can begin healing our ailing nation."

Clinton, who famously lost to former President Trump in the 2016 presidential election, then noted that Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has warned that a rising "’epidemic of loneliness and isolation’ threatens Americans’ personal health and also the health of our democracy." 

"Murthy reported that, even before COVID, about half of all American adults were experiencing substantial levels of loneliness," Clinton wrote before comparing loneliness to smoking, AIDS and obesity. 

"Shockingly, prolonged loneliness is as bad, or worse, for our health as being obese or smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. Researchers also say that loneliness can generate anger, resentment, and even paranoia. It diminishes civic engagement and social cohesion, and increases political polarization and animosity," Clinton wrote. 

HILLARY CLINTON BLAMES ‘MAGA REPUBLICANS’ FOR MAKING IT HOT OUTSIDE

The former Secretary of State declared that she’s been worried about loneliness since at least 1996. 

"Even back then, before smartphones and social media, it was evident that Americans were becoming more isolated, lonely, and unmoored from traditional sources of meaning and support—and that our kids were suffering because of this," she wrote before taking a jab at conservatives.  

"I also was concerned about the rise of right-wing politicians like Newt Gingrich and media personalities like Rush Limbaugh who were sowing division and alienation," Clinton wrote. 

Clinton, who made the term "deplorables" an infamous political phrase, expressed concern that her grandchildren and other young Americans will have poor self-esteem, mental health, and a false sense of reality. 

"The way Americans—and young people in particular—interact with technology today, the way our phones and social-media networks inject bullying, abuse, misinformation, outrage, and anger directly into our brains, is not something any of us could have foreseen just a few short decades ago," she wrote before taking a sharp political turn asking, "What does all of this loneliness and disconnection mean for our democracy?"

Clinton then evoked Steve Bannon, who served as Trump’s chief executive during the 2016 campaign. 

"It’s not just the surgeon general who recognizes that social isolation saps the lifeblood of democracy. So do the ultra-right-wing billionaires, propagandists, and provocateurs who see authoritarianism as a source of power and profit," she wrote. "There have always been angry young men alienated from mainstream society and susceptible to the appeal of demagogues and hate-mongers. But modern technology has taken the danger to another level. This was Steve Bannon’s key insight."

Clinton insisted that "angry young men" in "far-right echo chambers" contributed to her 2016 loss. 

"I have seen firsthand how dangerous lies can fuel violence and undermine our democratic process. During the 2016 campaign, a shocking number of people became convinced that I am a murderer, a terrorist sympathizer, and the evil mastermind behind a child-sex-abuse ring," she wrote.

'PROFOUNDLY DISTURBING': HILLARY CLINTON REACTS TO REPUBLICANS DEFENDING TRUMP OVER FEDERAL INDICTMENT

Throughout the piece, Clinton repeatedly referenced her decades-old book, "It Takes a Village," which she implied foreshadowed the problems she’s so concerned about today. 

"If you dig deep enough, through all the mud of politics and polarization, eventually you hit something hard and true: a foundation of values and aspirations that bind us together as Americans. That’s something to build on. If we can break out of our toxic ‘us versus them’ dichotomies, if we can shrink our notion of ‘the other’ and expand the ‘we’ in ‘we the people,’ perhaps we can discover that we have more in common than we think," she wrote.

"Though we are divided in so many ways, though we are lonelier and more isolated than ever, it remains true that none of us can raise a family, build a business, strengthen a community, or heal a nation alone," Clinton continued. "We have to do it together. It still takes a village."

Fox News' David Rutz contributed to this report. 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

For more Culture, Media, Education, Opinion, and channel coverage, visit foxnews.com/media