We all know the country is polarized but we may not be aware of one of the factors that are underlying polarization.  To quote Brian McLaren in the Center for Action and Contemplation newsletter, two of the major biases the contribute to our polarization are:   

“Conservative/Liberal Bias: I lean toward nurturing fairness and kindness, or towards strictly enforcing purity, loyalty, liberty, and authority, as an expression of my political identity. 

Complementarity Bias: If you are hostile to my ideas, I’ll be hostile to yours. If you are curious and respectful toward my ideas, I am more likely to respond in kind.” 

So, when we see people on the other side and say things like, “the cruelty is the point” these are the underlying factors for that observation.  MAGA is so tied into not being like the liberals, that they don’t allow themselves to feel empathy. Their underlying motivation is to be loyal to their chosen authority figure, but they need to reject anything that smacks of empathy, to the extent that they write books like Toxic Empathy by Allie Beth Stuckey. It’s gotten so extreme that it’s almost a caricature.

But have we gotten extreme also? I am not sure.

If you want to know more about the types of factors behind political polarization, I’ve written a book about them, called Persuade, Don’t Preach: Restoring Civility Across the Political Divide. It is my hope that by understanding the other side we can learn to talk to each other in ways that they will hear. And then we can come together and solve our real problems, not the fake one.