Almost all the rise in US polarisation over political issues since the late 1980s occurred from 2008 onwards, a new study suggests. Most of this has been driven by the American left becoming more socially liberal over time.
Bold of them to write such horseshit about Republicans not moving right while ice squads dressed like thugs shoot people in the street, abduct anyone who looks vaguely less white and puts them in detention or deports them with no legal process.
But no, start your study conveniently at the end of the Reagan/Gingritch era and then do tell me why this is all Obama’s fault because (checks notes) Republicans didn’t used to be this implacably opposed to abortion and (checks notes again) both parties moved on racism and healthcare. Yes, I see why the poor rural conservatives felt “left behind” by radicalised perspectives like “not all black people deserve to be treated like slaves” and “let’s have some sort of subsidy for privatised healthcare”.
There’s a special sort of dumb that some clever people have where they refuse to see reality.
This study is a croc of shit. Its conclusions don’t even match the content they chose to summarise.
I looked at the real paper (linked in the article) and I am interpreting it a bit different. What I’m seeing is that the ‘right’ didnt move much further to the right because they’ve always supported racist, patriarchal fascism - they just have the means to actually do it now rather than just think about it and make incremental moves toward it. The movement towards the left coincides pretty well with smartphones + high speed internet, which allowed many people to see the rest of the world in real-time for the first time. This more ‘global conciousness’ can shift attitudes to the left because it peers through the veil of US propaganda. These are just my first interpretations though - I could be wrong. I try to give the benefit of the doubt to those who do the work to write peer reviewed papers (i don’t give a shit about the website article though).
Bold of them to write such horseshit about Republicans not moving right while ice squads dressed like thugs shoot people in the street, abduct anyone who looks vaguely less white and puts them in detention or deports them with no legal process.
But no, start your study conveniently at the end of the Reagan/Gingritch era and then do tell me why this is all Obama’s fault because (checks notes) Republicans didn’t used to be this implacably opposed to abortion and (checks notes again) both parties moved on racism and healthcare. Yes, I see why the poor rural conservatives felt “left behind” by radicalised perspectives like “not all black people deserve to be treated like slaves” and “let’s have some sort of subsidy for privatised healthcare”.
There’s a special sort of dumb that some clever people have where they refuse to see reality.
This study is a croc of shit. Its conclusions don’t even match the content they chose to summarise.
I looked at the real paper (linked in the article) and I am interpreting it a bit different. What I’m seeing is that the ‘right’ didnt move much further to the right because they’ve always supported racist, patriarchal fascism - they just have the means to actually do it now rather than just think about it and make incremental moves toward it. The movement towards the left coincides pretty well with smartphones + high speed internet, which allowed many people to see the rest of the world in real-time for the first time. This more ‘global conciousness’ can shift attitudes to the left because it peers through the veil of US propaganda. These are just my first interpretations though - I could be wrong. I try to give the benefit of the doubt to those who do the work to write peer reviewed papers (i don’t give a shit about the website article though).