Let’s start with this article, which in turn references this article.
The author of that second article then says this, as quoted in the first article:
“As people affectively polarize, they appear to blow out-group threats out of proportion, exaggerating the out-group’s dislike and disgust for their own group, and getting ready to defend their in-group, sometimes aggressively,” Kleinfeld argued.
I’ve felt this way for a while, especially about the “blowing out-group threats out of proportion.” Like, remember when a guy shot up a pizza parlor because he thought children were being trafficked inside? Usually a Democrat President just means more woke policies and pandering to one or two affinity groups. It doesn’t mean pedophiles are running the country. And usually a GOP President means big business and billionaires are in a good spot; it’s not the demise of society writ large either. In fact, what the President does day-to-day doesn’t really touch many people. It’s kinda just a thing we talk about more than we should, and often in performative terms, to boot.
Here’s another quote from the first article:
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