Obama: Drift Toward Extremism Is Not Inevitable

More than 12,000 people gathered in a large hall in the city to hear the former US president's views on the challenges facing the world.

Barack Obama has told an audience in Glasgow that despite the great challenges facing the modern world, hope is worth fighting for.

The 44th US president said online platforms have shifted in recent years to focus on content that incites anger and fear, but he believes the trend towards extremism is "not inevitable".

The comments came as he spoke to a crowd of 12,150 at the OVO Hydro during a conversation with British journalist and author Sathnam Sanghera, who was part of three UK speaking sessions.

He reflected on his time in the White House and explored the political and social challenges facing the United States and the wider world.

More stories from Glasgow and the West of Scotland

Obama said that during his 2008 campaign, when social media and technology were on the rise, he saw them as a beacon of hope.

But he said the same positive forces and tools that can mobilize people around democracy or human rights can also be used by hate groups.

They "connected people for good, but also for bad," he said.

"It seems like the reptilian part of our brain is really attracted to anger, fear, anger, and the feeling that someone is out to get you," he says.

So a lot of social media and a lot of our information is communicated about that.

But the former president, who previously spoke in Belfast and will be in Manchester on Thursday night, said the move towards extremism was "inevitable".

He added: "After World War II, at least in the United States and certainly in Europe, the federal government said, ``We're going to make laws because we saw what propaganda could do in the hands of someone like Hitler.''

We can see that big lies and misinformation can cause distortion, anger and incite violence. Therefore, we hold these people responsible."

Obama, who was president until 2016, said there was a "critical balance" that needed to be struck between free speech and regulation.

But the 65-year-old said the world and its leaders must find new mechanisms and institutions to help people sort out the basic facts.

"If I had one blame for why politics is so polarized and why we're seeing the rise of populism in so many places, it's because of the information that goes into our brains every day," he said.

Obama said it makes young people feel discouraged and "it's not a healthy diet that our brains are following right now."

He added that he fears it will get even worse as artificial intelligence makes it difficult to distinguish between right and wrong, something he believes makes it difficult for democracy to function.

Obama says people forget the lessons of the past

Speaking of hope, Obama was asked if he still believes, as Martin Luther King Jr. quoted years ago, that the arm of the moral universe is long, but ultimately bends toward justice.

The former president said he still stands by the quote, arguing that hope is an "almost theological" active choice people must make.

He said: This is a decision on how to face and embrace the limited time we have on this planet.

He told the audience that he believes it is healthier for people to believe that change is possible.

"I think when we act on that, it doesn't always work out, but things get better over time," he said.

Obama also said that there seems to be a cycle in humanity where people forget the lessons learned from the past and start taking things for granted.

We're starting to think that maybe our politicians use language in public that fuels hatred and vilifies certain people—immigrants, or Jews, or blacks, or gays.

He said people forget where it can lead and are less tolerant as a result.

Obama told the audience that the world will face "huge challenges," but he said he thinks "we can be better" and that making the world better is worth fighting for.