Why are politics so divisive?

[Eddy Current]

Read the book the Righteous Mind: Why good people argue about politics. Basically the right and left begin with different moral frameworks to begin with which are mostly based on our intuitions about things. Then the reasons we come up with for defending our beliefs are invented in order to back up our original intuitions. Both sides "know" they are right because of the way they feel lol.

Thanks for the book recommendation!

[JimRaynor]

It's bizarre how much anger and bitterness is involved in politics. Why does the subject bring out the worst in people?

Politics determines how people and their families live. Wars have been started over political ideology, what we are seeing now is tame compared to what could happen or eventually will happen.

[BrometheusBob.]

It is not so bizarre that it is divisive, and if anything only seems more divisive now compared to a couple decades ago because more people have developed stronger political opinions, most likely thanks to the internet

More people are seeing and engaging with political content on the internet. That's probably a result of it being specifically targeted to them on platforms like Facebook and YouTube.

All sorts of groupings of political peoples in this country have found echo chambers on the internet where they see/hear what they want to see/hear, are provided anonymity, are not incentivized to moderate what they say to fit a crowd with diverse perspectives, are not challenged etc and the result is that it takes considerably less time to develop passionate & staunch political views compared with before.

Most people used to hear political talk before and go "oh boy, this baloney again" but now they actively seek like minded people and sources of news that corroborate what they were thinking already, creating a situation where they have no incentive to seriously challenge their perspective or consider that people with different views have any validity

[Eddy Current]

It is not so bizarre that it is divisive, and if anything only seems more divisive now compared to a couple decades ago because more people have developed stronger political opinions, most likely thanks to the internet

More people are seeing and engaging with political content on the internet. That's probably a result of it being specifically targeted to them on platforms like Facebook and YouTube.

All sorts of groupings of political peoples in this country have found echo chambers on the internet where they see/hear what they want to see/hear, are provided anonymity, are not incentivized to moderate what they say to fit a crowd with diverse perspectives, are not challenged etc and the result is that it takes considerably less time to develop passionate & staunch political views compared with before.

Most people used to hear political talk before and go "oh boy, this baloney again" but now they actively seek like minded people and sources of news that corroborate what they were thinking already, creating a situation where they have no incentive to seriously challenge their perspective or consider that people with different views have any validity

Good point about the internet! That definitely plays a huge role in it.

[GhostofDempsey]

It's not just politics that are divisive. It's everything now--men/women, black/white, gay/straight, rich/poor, and the us vs. them mentality spreads into every aspect of our lives.

There is a WAPO article that was recently published by a radical feminist, gives you a glimpse into the mindset of people today.

On Friday, The Washington Post ran what could easily rank as the single looniest op-d they’ve ever run: a piece from Victoria Bissell Brown, retired history professor at Grinnell College, arguing that men are incapable of being good, even if they oppose sexism. Men are, by nature, vile and terrible, and can’t fix anything by listening to women – instead, they must change from within. Sadly, though, they’re not capable of such change, which begs the question: what the hell are men supposed to do, aside from die?

[maracho]

Divide and conquer

[TJ highway]

On Friday, The Washington Post ran what could easily rank as the single looniest op-d they’ve ever run: a piece from Victoria Bissell Brown, retired history professor at Grinnell College, arguing that men are incapable of being good, even if they oppose sexism. Men are, by nature, vile and terrible, and can’t fix anything by listening to women – instead, they must change from within. Sadly, though, they’re not capable of such change, which begs the question: what the hell are men supposed to do, aside from die?

College Professor at Grinnell tenured no doubt? Talk about people who live in the make believe!

Guess she didn't have a male figure in her life who went off
to war. Great Grandfathers who fought in the trenches in WWI France and places like Belleau Wood. Or D-Day the night before the invasion, the Paratroopers and Rangers who were parachuted in to fight the Nazi's.

Or maybe a dad that worked two jobs so that his children could have the education he would never have.

Some people are so educated they are stupid!

[HOUDINI563]

Main reason is the far right entertainers...Hannity, Limbaugh, Levin, Fox. Their purpose is to deceive. To paint a false picture of reality. Create an illusion of what we as a nation are that is completely false. The purpose? To purposefully create a US vs THEM mentality primarily with the uneducated. It’s a story that’s been in place for thousands of years. The rich are too few in number to have political power. They must recruit the uneducated to rally with them in order to get anything done politically. The far right entertainers and Fox are the mouthpiece of the very rich. It’s the worst type of deception as it prays on those who know no better and are easily deceived. If you honestly knew at how deep a level you have been lied to you would be very pissed.