3 ms·

How could it possible be irreversible? Is there any partisan polarization that's lasted a thousand years? How about even just a couple hundred? Even slavery wa

How could it possible be irreversible? Is there any partisan polarization that's lasted a thousand years? How about even just a couple hundred? Even slavery was abolished in the US and that seemed like an irreversible polarization.

mrkentutbabi 5y ago
I think as long as the big factors that influence the polarization stays, i.e, big tech, social media, etc, the polarization will stay here.
9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y ago
They used Chekoslovakia as an example, as well as climate change.
vaidhy 5y ago
Shia-Sunni, Turkey-Greek, Catholic-Reformation are a few that come to mind. Take a look at Middle East and you would see long standing polarization.. Anti-semitism is also another long standing polarization. Slavery was abolished, but you still have people flying confederate flags and arguing for slavery (in a more modern rendition)
dwater 5y ago
Slavery was abolished unilaterally, not as a reversal of the political polarization, and it could be argued that although the explicit practice of slavery is no longer polarizing, Jim Crow laws and their modern antecedents such as The Southern Strategy have been continually polarizing in American politics ever since. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy
AnimalMuppet 5y ago
Slavery took a civil war with 500,000 dead to end the polarization. Yeah, it ended, and that's good, but... is there a way where we can end that kind of polarization without 500,000 dead?
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y ago
  Dissolve the constitution and call for a new constitutional convention?
  - AnimalMuppet 5y ago
    Maybe. Maybe. Or maybe that triggers the civil war. Look, it's possible. It could even be what we need. But for it to work, we'd need wisdom and honest compromise, not sound-bite driven trench-warfare politics. Under current conditions, I see a low probability that it would work.
    - 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y ago
      Or perhaps mandatory civil service? https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/10/31/us-democracy-mandatory-public-service-program-political-divides/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/10/31/us-democracy-mandatory-...
      - sagarm 5y ago
        In a country where a sizable minority feel that simply wearing masks during a pandemic is an unconscionable infringement of personal liberty?
        9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y ago
        That same country still has a mandatory selective service for the military.
        AnimalMuppet 5y ago
        No it doesn't. It has a purely voluntary military. (People still have to register for selective service, but there hasn't been a draft in decades.)
  - jaywalk 5y ago
ynth7 5y ago
Understanding logical fallacy has been shown to act as an “inoculant” against fake news. I don’t think these things reverse (time doesn’t go backwards) so much as settle as the last generation that held such beliefs dies off. >80% followed religion in the US in ‘99. Now it’s <50%. Coincidentally about the same percent of support for conservative politics (not economics but the ephemeral civic life tradition or death type). It’s how it goes; humans were the hard drives and CPUs of our economics until recently, and the costly in real terms old money network winds down with them. A lot of folks will feel disenfranchised, many rightly so, but also of lot rich folks today made it rich in an era of imploding pensions and gambling away others retirements, so if they get hosed, oh well. In the end all will be forgotten and implicitly I think we know that so we just keep going.

mrkentutbabi 5y ago

I think as long as the big factors that influence the polarization stays, i.e, big tech, social media, etc, the polarization will stay here.

9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y ago

They used Chekoslovakia as an example, as well as climate change.

vaidhy 5y ago

Shia-Sunni, Turkey-Greek, Catholic-Reformation are a few that come to mind. Take a look at Middle East and you would see long standing polarization.. Anti-semitism is also another long standing polarization. Slavery was abolished, but you still have people flying confederate flags and arguing for slavery (in a more modern rendition)

dwater 5y ago

Slavery was abolished unilaterally, not as a reversal of the political polarization, and it could be argued that although the explicit practice of slavery is no longer polarizing, Jim Crow laws and their modern antecedents such as The Southern Strategy have been continually polarizing in American politics ever since. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy

AnimalMuppet 5y ago

Slavery took a civil war with 500,000 dead to end the polarization. Yeah, it ended, and that's good, but... is there a way where we can end that kind of polarization without 500,000 dead?

9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y ago
Dissolve the constitution and call for a new constitutional convention?
- AnimalMuppet 5y ago
  Maybe. Maybe. Or maybe that triggers the civil war. Look, it's possible. It could even be what we need. But for it to work, we'd need wisdom and honest compromise, not sound-bite driven trench-warfare politics. Under current conditions, I see a low probability that it would work.
  - 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y ago
    Or perhaps mandatory civil service? https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/10/31/us-democracy-mandatory-public-service-program-political-divides/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/10/31/us-democracy-mandatory-...
    - sagarm 5y ago
      In a country where a sizable minority feel that simply wearing masks during a pandemic is an unconscionable infringement of personal liberty?
      - 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y ago
        That same country still has a mandatory selective service for the military.
        AnimalMuppet 5y ago
        No it doesn't. It has a purely voluntary military. (People still have to register for selective service, but there hasn't been a draft in decades.)
- jaywalk 5y ago

ynth7 5y ago

Understanding logical fallacy has been shown to act as an “inoculant” against fake news. I don’t think these things reverse (time doesn’t go backwards) so much as settle as the last generation that held such beliefs dies off. >80% followed religion in the US in ‘99. Now it’s <50%. Coincidentally about the same percent of support for conservative politics (not economics but the ephemeral civic life tradition or death type). It’s how it goes; humans were the hard drives and CPUs of our economics until recently, and the costly in real terms old money network winds down with them. A lot of folks will feel disenfranchised, many rightly so, but also of lot rich folks today made it rich in an era of imploding pensions and gambling away others retirements, so if they get hosed, oh well. In the end all will be forgotten and implicitly I think we know that so we just keep going.