Are We Polarized in American Politics?

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i think it's actually misleading to look at things where we are not really focusing on them in a popular way and say, h puv arn't that polarized. Once they get into the political system, they collapse down to this unit of who will win the next election? I don't believe that what is happening is that people are amusing themselves with polarization over here. Whereas the political system is being run, people cannot see me making hand motions af the moment. But i do think that that move on from one issue to another has tremendous implications for how America governs its climate.

In his new book, Ezra Klein argues that polarization in America has become centered on partisan political identities, which has subsumed virtually every form of identity, be it where we live, what team we root for, the church we attend, or any other. This stacked form of polarization thus carries much more weight and is activated by a wider range of conflicts than before.

But is polarization really such a pressing concern? If it’s all merged into one form of identity politics then aren’t we just polarizing more efficiently? Over what percentage of GDP are we more polarized today versus in the past?

Tyler posed these questions to Ezra and more, including thoughts on Silicon Valley’s intellectual culture, his disagreement with Jonathan Haidt’s Moral Foundations Theory, the limits of telecommuting, how becoming a father made him less conservative, his post-kid production function, why Manhattan is overrated, the “cosmic embarrassment” of California’s governance, why he loved Marriage Story, the future of the BBC and PBS, what he learned in Pakistan, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Recorded December 27th, 2019 Other ways to connect

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