This week on the podcast, we talked to Dr. Nichole Argo. She’s recently written The Belonging Barometer: The State of Belonging in the US and The Science of Polarization and Insights for Bridge Building… pretty important topics given the results of last month’s election! Even if Kamala Harris had won, it wouldn’t have changed the fact that the United States is incredibly polarized right now.
Dr. Argo calls it “toxic polarization.” Sounds about right. But how did we get here?
There are quite a few reasons. The first she mentions is the decline of local media. In the optimistic early days of the internet, many of us thought that the democratization of information would lead to greater unity and understanding; unfortunately, it’s just too much information for humans to process, leading us to choose the viewpoints and information that feel best to us. The result is disinformation and more polarization.
But Americans are also more isolated than ever before. Even if we want to, it’s harder to connect with people who don’t share our politics, race, socioeconomic status, or lifestyle. And when you don’t actually talk to people, it’s easy to assume all kinds of terrible things about them.
On top of that, this is undeniably a very stressful time! Pandemics, AI, the economy, climate change… there’s a lot to be worried about. And that tends to make us dig in our heels and cling to our pre-conceived notions for dear life.
So how do we fix it? How can America become less polarized?
Building bridges starts with open and honest communication. At Red Wine & Blue, we’ve always been about the power of conversations. The more we can talk to others in our communities (and beyond), the more we’ll be able to humanize those with different viewpoints - and hopefully, they’ll be able to humanize us too.
We know that “open and honest communication” with Trump supporters is easier said than done. With everything he stands for and wants to do in the next four years, it’s tempting to never talk to our MAGA neighbors again. But polls show that, presidential politics aside, most Americans support things like reproductive freedom and common sense gun safety laws. Our views are not actually as different as our politics might indicate.
If we can take the cult of personality out of it, maybe we can start rebuilding those bridges.
