“Do most people legitimately disagree with one another? Or are they merely conforming to supposedly dominant ideas? Though there are legitimate disagreements, we contend that modern American political tribalism has been artificially inflated by group-based conformity. That is, the moderate majority’s submission to the demands of dedicated partisans has created a mirage of polarization.”
The conventional wisdom says America is a divided country these days, but that may be a misinterpretation of what’s actually happening.
Quillette argues political moderates are lying and suggests what’s actually happening is “group-based conformity” has pushed moderates to support values and policies they don’t actually believe in.
The post also includes a bunch of interesting stats such as that 30% of the population in 2016 said they followed the election campaign “not too closely” or “not at all.”
We’re not divided — we’re just not paying attention.
RELATED: How CNN makes us dumber by treating politics like sports.