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Polarization has nothing to do with the craziness of ideas, but the lack of a middle ground. Polarization has to do with the clustering of beliefs. If attendin

by shkkmo 6y ago

Polarization has nothing to do with the craziness of ideas, but the lack of a middle ground. Polarization has to do with the clustering of beliefs. If attending BLM protests makes you less likely to attend pro-life protests, that is polarization. The strength of that correlation is the amount of polarization. Acceptance of Inter-racial marriage is a topic that was once far more polarized. That depolarization is exactly allowed us to make progress on the topic as a society. Thus polarization inhibits cultural growth and change.

evgen 6y ago
Interracial marriage did not just slowly creep in until it was considered acceptable. It had to fight its way into the conversation, then have champions who were willing to take great risks and accept painful consequences for promoting these polarizing beliefs. 'Depolarization' on this subject is not something that just happened, nor it an effective strategy for change. What happened is that one side LOST and their viewpoint was forcibly removed from the conversation. Within a generation this viewpoint was considered completely unacceptable and those who held this belief learned to shut up unless they were prepared to become the office racist. Voila, depolarization. Polarization is the only means by which change will be accomplished and there is a growing majority that desires change so your options are to either pick a side or accept the fact that this conflict is happening and keep your head down while you focus on the rest of your job. There are not other options and we passed the tipping point for this conflict quite a while ago.
- shkkmo 6y ago
  You seem to mean something entirely different by polarization and depolarization. As long as the issue is polarized, then it gains network support from the issues with which it is polarized. That process of standardization that you describe as "winning" happened because the issue became decoupled from stances on other issues and was no longer predictive of other views. To put this in more concrete terms, I am not saying that you should not challenge racism and racists. I am saying that in pursuit of that goal you should actively push back on assuming someone is racist because of their political views.

by shkkmo 6y ago

evgen 6y ago

Interracial marriage did not just slowly creep in until it was considered acceptable. It had to fight its way into the conversation, then have champions who were willing to take great risks and accept painful consequences for promoting these polarizing beliefs. 'Depolarization' on this subject is not something that just happened, nor it an effective strategy for change. What happened is that one side LOST and their viewpoint was forcibly removed from the conversation. Within a generation this viewpoint was considered completely unacceptable and those who held this belief learned to shut up unless they were prepared to become the office racist. Voila, depolarization. Polarization is the only means by which change will be accomplished and there is a growing majority that desires change so your options are to either pick a side or accept the fact that this conflict is happening and keep your head down while you focus on the rest of your job. There are not other options and we passed the tipping point for this conflict quite a while ago.

shkkmo 6y ago
You seem to mean something entirely different by polarization and depolarization. As long as the issue is polarized, then it gains network support from the issues with which it is polarized. That process of standardization that you describe as "winning" happened because the issue became decoupled from stances on other issues and was no longer predictive of other views. To put this in more concrete terms, I am not saying that you should not challenge racism and racists. I am saying that in pursuit of that goal you should actively push back on assuming someone is racist because of their political views.