Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Preventing extreme polarization of political attitudes

pnas.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 316 posts

Re: Preventing extreme polarization of political attitudes

#91

Post by grover35 »

kstenerud wrote: post #22

It's an interesting paper, but unfortunately it misses the point. Polar dissimilar political beliefs are not the problem. Many countries have this, and even have lively political discussions that remain civil, rallies that remain civil, and elections that remain civil. The actual problem is psychological, specifically dealing with identity beliefs. Once a person takes on a belief as part of their identity, any attack…

I'm American and I can't help but think many of you just lack social skills. It's very convenient to think that everyone's hyper-sensitive and there's nothing you could do to change that, but usually people are pretty receptive to just about anything as long as you respect them. Avoid leading/gotcha questions, don't smirk, appear to genuinely listen and seek to understand the other person, resist the urge to tool on them if it's shown they're lacking basic knowledge, try to find common ground. I'm relatively conservative and I've never had a problem.

Re: Preventing extreme polarization of political attitudes

#92

Post by ohCh6zos »

hypertexthero wrote: post #85
kstenerud wrote: post #22

It's an interesting paper, but unfortunately it misses the point. Polar dissimilar political beliefs are not the problem. Many countries have this, and even have lively political discussions that remain civil, rallies that remain civil, and elections that remain civil. The actual problem is psychological, specifically dealing with identity beliefs. Once a person takes on a belief as part of their identity, any attack…

> When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or…

I never thought I would be pro-violence, but if separation from the undifferentiated is violent, then violence is a good thing.

Re: Preventing extreme polarization of political attitudes

#93

Post by ridiculous_leke »

idontwantthis wrote: post #49

Polarization in America: One side invaded the capital building in a violent attempt to overthrow democracy, and the other side wants to make voting for whoever you want as easy as possible. Guess which pole I’m at and tell me how I should meet the other pole in the middle.

Did all conservatives and right-wing people storm the capital?

Re: Preventing extreme polarization of political attitudes

#94

Post by Brendinooo »

idontwantthis wrote: post #49

Polarization in America: One side invaded the capital building in a violent attempt to overthrow democracy, and the other side wants to make voting for whoever you want as easy as possible. Guess which pole I’m at and tell me how I should meet the other pole in the middle.

Your characterization is comically uncharitable.

That said, don't think of it as meeting the other pole in the middle. Realize that there are lots of other people between your pole and their pole, and the pole you despise is representative of a lot less people than you think.

Re: Preventing extreme polarization of political attitudes

#95

Post by ridiculous_leke »

idontwantthis wrote: post #70
supreme_loquat wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One side invaded the capital building in a violent attempt to overthrow democracy Okay so lumping together half the country in with a few extremists would probably be the first step to answering your question. Yes there were probably plenty of people at home cheering them on but if you really believe it was half the country then you need to get outside your bubble. > the other side wants to make voting for whoever…

60% of Republicans believe that Biden did not win the election. If you believe the presidency has been stolen by a conspiracy then violence is the only recourse remaining. This is not a handful of extremists. This is the predominant view.

What's the source of that stat?

Re: Preventing extreme polarization of political attitudes

#96

Post by h2odragon »

idontwantthis wrote: post #64
rmbyrro wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's how bad the situation is... To be fair, though, the left also has been associated with violent and anti-democratic behaviors.

“To be fair” nothing approaching the same ballpark has been committed by the left and the any “violent and anti democratic behaviors” you can give examples of have not been championed by the left establishment. One side wants to seize power for all time, and the other side wants democracy. If anyone on the left isn’t polarized by that fact then they aren’t paying attention.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_United_States_Senate_bomb...

> Six members of the radical far-left Resistance Conspiracy were arrested in May 1988 and charged with the bombing, as well as related bombings

just one, commonly cited counterpoint.

Re: Preventing extreme polarization of political attitudes

#97

Post by dumbkidinsch »

I don't think you can, if the fundamental premises and values of different groups of people are too divergent. I've been noticing the greatest hates comes from actually knowing your neighbor rather than the myth hate comes from being ignorant.

If I had to guess its knowing plus disgust leads to polarization.

Re: Preventing extreme polarization of political attitudes

#98

Post by eej71 »

idontwantthis wrote: post #70
supreme_loquat wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One side invaded the capital building in a violent attempt to overthrow democracy Okay so lumping together half the country in with a few extremists would probably be the first step to answering your question. Yes there were probably plenty of people at home cheering them on but if you really believe it was half the country then you need to get outside your bubble. > the other side wants to make voting for whoever…

60% of Republicans believe that Biden did not win the election. If you believe the presidency has been stolen by a conspiracy then violence is the only recourse remaining. This is not a handful of extremists. This is the predominant view.

Here's a fun polarizing stat for "the other side". "More than half of democrats believed Bush knew about 9/11".

https://www.politico.com/blogs/ben-smith/2011/04/more-than-h...

Of all the people I know across the spectrum, I don't know of anyone (registered or otherwise) who believes either nonsense.

Re: Preventing extreme polarization of political attitudes

#99

Post by gruez »

notadev wrote: post #75
kstenerud wrote: post #22

It's an interesting paper, but unfortunately it misses the point. Polar dissimilar political beliefs are not the problem. Many countries have this, and even have lively political discussions that remain civil, rallies that remain civil, and elections that remain civil. The actual problem is psychological, specifically dealing with identity beliefs. Once a person takes on a belief as part of their identity, any attack…

Ah yes, the identity politics caused by people who are Republicans is the problem. Not at all the people trying to push unlimited genders, actively destroying our common language, or advocating for a person’s “live experiences” over actual reality.

>Ah yes, the identity politics caused by people who are Republicans is the problem

you're reading too much into it. from my reading of it, "republican" was only given as an example, not as the cause.

Re: Preventing extreme polarization of political attitudes

#100

Post by a4isms »

brightball wrote: post #84

The polarization is much worse on the left side of the isle. I’d always observed it on the internet with what comes across as belligerent hate of anything done by a conservative, but this recent poll really brings home just how far the brainwashing has gone. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/over-70-of-young... If your political beliefs prevent you from associating with somebody because you have labeled the…

TL;DR:

“The problem with polarization is all those brainwashed people over there."

Post reply on HN