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My current hypothesis is that our current culture war is being driven by a lack of accountability. From graft in politics to anonymous bullying online, more and

My current hypothesis is that our current culture war is being driven by a lack of accountability. From graft in politics to anonymous bullying online, more and more people are able to get away with worse and worse bad faith behavior for longer and longer.

tus88 7y ago
Or maybe there are substantive sociopolitical issues at play - primarily people at some kind of disadvantage trying to wrest power, wealth and control from those who already have it (as if history has never heard that story before). Except now it is this weird kind of interplay between race, gender, migrants, and no-one is which side they are on.
antupis 7y ago
The USA's problem is the voting system. Currently, it favors extremism eg try to get the nomination in primaries saying another side is actually ok. Change system something like ranked-choice voting and you get nominees literally singing kumbaya together https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyJKh_CwPI4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyJKh_CwPI4 .
- remarkEon 7y ago
  >Currently, it favors extremism eg try to get the nomination in primaries saying another side is actually ok. This is just flat out wrong, and I think you might be conflating what could be interpreted as a "purity spiral" on the left right now as "normal". It is most certainly not normal. The 2016 Dems nominated the most centrist candidate in a generation (at least), and Trump managed to win the general by essentially playing the game better in the Electoral College. Even if I accepted your premise for a moment (I don't, in reality) that ranked-choice voting actually pushes candidates into aligning with each other ideologically, to the extent it makes them less detested by their ostensible political opponents, it is not at all clear that this is an optimum outcome. Especially in times of political turmoil - and I don't think it's controversial to suggest that we are in one right now a la the 1970s - a "regression to the mean" of choice in political candidates seems to be the exact opposite of a good idea. That just spells "status quo" for electoral outcomes, and would cause many (or most) to lose faith in the political system all together.
pjc50 7y ago
Who would hold whom accountable? A critical part of the factionalisation is that people will defend those "on their own side" no matter what they've done provided they maintain loyalty. In order to maintain their veneer of legitimacy they will go to any lengths to discredit the accusers. The peak of this may have been Alex Jones slandering the Sandy Hook victims, but I can quote an awful lot of examples. The only way society can become less polarised is intra-faction accountability. Since that works against the desire to win over the other team, it's not going to happen by itself.

tus88 7y ago

Or maybe there are substantive sociopolitical issues at play - primarily people at some kind of disadvantage trying to wrest power, wealth and control from those who already have it (as if history has never heard that story before). Except now it is this weird kind of interplay between race, gender, migrants, and no-one is which side they are on.

antupis 7y ago

The USA's problem is the voting system. Currently, it favors extremism eg try to get the nomination in primaries saying another side is actually ok. Change system something like ranked-choice voting and you get nominees literally singing kumbaya together https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyJKh_CwPI4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyJKh_CwPI4 .

remarkEon 7y ago
>Currently, it favors extremism eg try to get the nomination in primaries saying another side is actually ok. This is just flat out wrong, and I think you might be conflating what could be interpreted as a "purity spiral" on the left right now as "normal". It is most certainly not normal. The 2016 Dems nominated the most centrist candidate in a generation (at least), and Trump managed to win the general by essentially playing the game better in the Electoral College. Even if I accepted your premise for a moment (I don't, in reality) that ranked-choice voting actually pushes candidates into aligning with each other ideologically, to the extent it makes them less detested by their ostensible political opponents, it is not at all clear that this is an optimum outcome. Especially in times of political turmoil - and I don't think it's controversial to suggest that we are in one right now a la the 1970s - a "regression to the mean" of choice in political candidates seems to be the exact opposite of a good idea. That just spells "status quo" for electoral outcomes, and would cause many (or most) to lose faith in the political system all together.

pjc50 7y ago

Who would hold whom accountable? A critical part of the factionalisation is that people will defend those "on their own side" no matter what they've done provided they maintain loyalty. In order to maintain their veneer of legitimacy they will go to any lengths to discredit the accusers. The peak of this may have been Alex Jones slandering the Sandy Hook victims, but I can quote an awful lot of examples. The only way society can become less polarised is intra-faction accountability. Since that works against the desire to win over the other team, it's not going to happen by itself.