A Pew Research Center survey of 17 advanced economies (https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2021/10/13/diversity-and-division-in-advanced-economies/) found that political beliefs are the main divisive factor in 14 of the 17 countries, followed by racial, ethnic, and religious identities.
In these countries, the survey showed that, citizens believe that the other political party could destroy the country. And as they close and become more and more hermetic in politically-ideologically homogeneous communities and in digital social media booths, but also in internet bubbles, they have less and less opportunities to cross paths with people on the other side and find that they are basically good people who they just approach things from a different perspective.
But in a world where the two sides meet less and less, the chances of misjudging increase. Interactions between like-minded people reinforce the most extreme emotional self, the “emotional polarization”, ie the tendency of those who have a different political point of view to be considered not only misinformed, but malicious and subterranean, thus reducing fear and hostility towards them. are now perceived as an imminent threat. And those who feel threatened easily slip into barbarism.
Social scientists have named the phenomenon of fortification behind very extreme political positions and the more the debate intensifies as group polarization. In such a case, the uncontrolled absolute expression of speech hits the main democratic serum of an indiscriminate acceptance of all, with the result that the fanatics become even more fanatical and go to extremes. Social media has introduced this indiscriminate fanaticism.
The fact that a large number of social media users who are moderate in their views and expressions, choose to refrain from explosive political debates gives the right to extremists who support extreme positions, to dominate, creating on both sides the illusion of a sharp polarization recorded as “false polarization”.
The great crises, social or not, theoretically unite which conflicting political parties. But the pandemic has brought multi-layered upheavals to the diverse fragmented social landscape and highlighted many abysses: between faith, science and conspiracy theories, the vaccinated West, and the fast-paced developing world, political social pluralism and hostility to democracy respectively.
Few victories, many defeats, which reject the idea of cooperation either as a gradual development or as a radical leap. In some countries political parties have taken to common ground, in others governments have become more authoritarian, in most countries social upheavals have exacerbated polarization and artificial strife, but also intellectual and political confusion.
Debate between political opponents is a skill lost in Western culture. Toxic reason and polarization fuel the political fever, undermining the remaining stability. The more dramatic the opportunities for political cohesion diminish, the more the deafness in the words of political opponents spreads. Socializing with everyone is the cornerstone of social survival which is disappearing today.
