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New political polarization casts rivals as alien, unlikable, contemptible

scientificamerican.com

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Re: New political polarization casts rivals as alien, unlikable, contemptible

#31

Post by throwaway3699 »

raverbashing wrote: post #28
throwaway3699 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The left (at least, the internet left) do this here in the UK too. Twitter seems to think all Tory voters are rich white men who want the poor to suffer. Now I don't know if I'm in a bubble, because when I leave the internet and talk to actual lefties in person we always find a common ground. Hell, I have a friend group containing both anarcho communists and globalist one-world government types.

> all Tory voters are rich white men who want the poor to suffer. The recent vote on school meals certainly didn't help that image

Agreed, but now we have some real criticism of the Tories, it's just noise to them because they're used to the constant hate. This is one of the issues with constant outrage.

Re: New political polarization casts rivals as alien, unlikable, contemptible

#32

Post by throwaway3699 »

the-dude wrote: post #27
throwaway3699 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The left (at least, the internet left) do this here in the UK too. Twitter seems to think all Tory voters are rich white men who want the poor to suffer. Now I don't know if I'm in a bubble, because when I leave the internet and talk to actual lefties in person we always find a common ground. Hell, I have a friend group containing both anarcho communists and globalist one-world government types.

Have you seen the article posted here this week which claimed the main narrative on Twitter was only originating from about 6 people? For a long time now, the social media have been embraced by 'progressives'. I see them destroying themselves. Trump's 'surprise' election in 2016 fits in this : people don't voice their moderate opinion anymore, they vote however they want though.

> Have you seen the article posted here this week which claimed the main narrative on Twitter was only originating from about 6 people?

Do you have a link?

Re: New political polarization casts rivals as alien, unlikable, contemptible

#33

Post by bogwog »

swiley wrote: post #10

Delete your twitter/facebook/reddit account. Seriously! Go do it now! These sites are built with the goal of pushing people into groups that are always angry at each other. Angry polarized groups spend more time on the site and are easier to sell things to. The only thing ignoring this trash will do is make you a happier, more functional person.

Social media might need to be controlled in the same way cigarettes are. At the end of the day, both are drug dealers. One of them sells nicotine, the other sells dopamine.

Not sure what that would look like though. Cigarettes have scary labels and enforced age requirements. Maybe social media would have to change the way likes/upvotes/etc work to be less polarizing, in addition to an age limit enforcement?

Re: New political polarization casts rivals as alien, unlikable, contemptible

#34

Post by krapp »

api wrote: post #25
bogwog wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Make politics boring again.

Politics and government are definitely in the class of things we want to be boring. Interesting government and interesting politics were a major cause of death in the first half of the 20th century.

Unfortunately, ever since the debate between JFK and Richard Nixon, we increasingly demand that politics be spectacle, and that the president, specifically, be demagogue in chief. We don't believe politics can be useful, so it should at least be entertaining.

I'd rather being president were more like being prime minister, just a bureaucratic position without much prestige, necessary but no one is calling you "leader of the free world." But Americans are too entranced with the Great Man view of history (and their own importance) to allow that.

Re: New political polarization casts rivals as alien, unlikable, contemptible

#35

Post by auganov »

zo1 wrote: post #19
swiley wrote: post #10

Delete your twitter/facebook/reddit account. Seriously! Go do it now! These sites are built with the goal of pushing people into groups that are always angry at each other. Angry polarized groups spend more time on the site and are easier to sell things to. The only thing ignoring this trash will do is make you a happier, more functional person.

On some level yes. But the unfortunate side is that it's seeping into the overall culture and previously-benign and relatively apolitical institutions. That makes it dangerous to "ignore" and hope it goes away due to us all deciding to be reasonable and ignore the hateful and prominent voices that use social-media as a megaphone. Some institutions being actively soaked in identity politics and other divisive elements…

> But the unfortunate side is that it's seeping into the overall culture and previously-benign and relatively apolitical institutions

It's very hard to be apolitical. Almost all behavior can be interpreted politically.

What has really changed is it's much easier to obtain information about an organization and the individuals involved. In the past you might have simply not known enough to peg someone politically. Hence the impression of neutrality. Today it's just harder to create this illusion.

Re: New political polarization casts rivals as alien, unlikable, contemptible

#36

Post by bsenftner »

mnd999 wrote: post #22
empthought wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One side has literal Nazis marching for it, yelling “Jews will not replace us,” though...

I think most people on both “sides” find that unacceptable.

Than why have the GOP not not denounced them? Their silence is approval of the Nazis.

Re: New political polarization casts rivals as alien, unlikable, contemptible

#37

Post by morsch »

the-dude wrote: post #16
oneplane wrote: post #6

Ironically, a lot of the world has seen the USA do this to everyone else for a while too. Too a lesser degree to their anglophone friends of course but the rest of the world is alien and unlikable all the same (with just as little arguments as you see in the political divide). I suppose one could argue that the isolationism/tribalism has simply expanded inwards as 'the rest of the world' has already been put in the '…

I doubt the phenomenon has anything to do with the US in the ROW. Here in NL, a NATO member, it has been primarily the 'left' which has been painting groups with different opinions as 'nazis' 'fascists' etc. Vegans describing other people as murderers. I blame this culture for our last political murder [0] which already happened in 2002. This phenomenon is not new, I think it has to do with the dissolution of the USS…

How would you know that it's primarily the left (whatever that is) doing that in NL. Your own observations are not a good source for this, obviously.

Re: New political polarization casts rivals as alien, unlikable, contemptible

#38

Post by Tycho »

swiley wrote: post #10

Delete your twitter/facebook/reddit account. Seriously! Go do it now! These sites are built with the goal of pushing people into groups that are always angry at each other. Angry polarized groups spend more time on the site and are easier to sell things to. The only thing ignoring this trash will do is make you a happier, more functional person.

If it wasn’t for Twitter I would have literally no clue about the machinations of the intelligence agencies to undermine the president or the corrupt activities of the Biden family. Unfortunately the mainstream media outlets choose not to report or pursue a lot of stuff, and have an alarming habit of citing dubious statements from “the intelligence community” as legitimate evidence that resolves the matter.

Re: New political polarization casts rivals as alien, unlikable, contemptible

#39

Post by bsenftner »

matwood wrote: post #20
ache7 wrote: post #15

It is very sad that the authors of the article either believed in all these accusations against the Russians or are afraid to say that this is nonsense so that they are not accused of supporting the Russians. I want to note that the Russian government also accuses its political opponents of being foreign agents, using the same rhetoric.

It's well known that Russian trolls/bots use fake personas on social media in order to sow discord. Are you arguing that's not done at all, or that there is no evidence it's done in the article specific instance? Here's an article examining how it's done in relation to anti-vaxx. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6137759/

Don't all governments to this to any other democratic government? This practice is as old as democracy itself.

Re: New political polarization casts rivals as alien, unlikable, contemptible

#40

Post by matwood »

zo1 wrote: post #14
im3w1l wrote: post #5

Talk to people from the other party. But not about politics.

I agree, we are all human after all. But that's becoming more and more difficult. The divide between the left and the right is no longer revolving around ideology, politics, regulation, laws, etc. It's now become a matter of "life and death", "racism" and "violence" for a large chunk of the Left (and to some extent more and more from the Right too if I'm being honest). The slogans that are emerging are being sponged…

What I see anecdotally is that the left has become more inclusive, and the right as become more extreme. People have fled the right either to no party or to the center left. That leaves behind the extremes on the right which have become emboldened by Trump and their shrinking bubble.

It's like evaporating water out of a glass of salt water. The water left behind becomes more and more salty. If you have ever had a salt water aquarium you'll know that you don't add salt water back to the tank, but fresh water in order to balance out the evaporation.

You mention racism. The same people may have been racist before, but now they are ok yelling it out loud because the only people left in their bubble think the same way (Trump may or may not be racist, but he certainly stokes this fire). And this is why it's difficult, because if someone tells me they do not want black people living in their neighborhood, I'm going to tell them that's a racist statement.

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