I can’t remember a time when the American people have been so divided. In my lifetime we’ve gone from a country whose strength was its diversity, and rational debate was welcomed and effective, to a fractured, tribalized population whose main goal is winning for their “side”.

I have seen people I’ve known for years – some my whole life – espouse and promote ideologies I never thought possible. But here’s the rub – it’s almost exclusively from behind a computer. I have had great, respectful discussions with people about any number of subjects without any snide remarks or a cross word only to see a post from them a few days later about the same subject filled with such vitriole and demonstrably untrue “facts” it made my head spin.

As far as I can see, this problem isn’t isolated to people from one “side” (I hate that term, but here we are) or the other. It just happens with disturbing regularity. I, as most people, have friends from across the political, religious and socioeconomic spectrum and we socialize regularly and without drama. Do we laugh at, poke fun at and annoy each other with regularity? Sure. That’s what friends do . Would any one of one of us rush to help the other if they needed us at two o’clock in the morning? Absolutely. So why, in spite of this, are we otherwise so divided? I have some thoughts.

Tribalism First, Thinking Second

It is sadly apparent that political and social division is tightly linked to weak critical-thinking habits and tribalism, and the feedback loop is brutal.

People don’t seem to engage with ideas as ideas anymore. It seems as though their ideas, as well as the ideas of those with whom they disagree, become their identity.”These are my people”. When this happens, the result is:

Disagreeing seems like betrayal .

Evidence against an idea is interpreted as an attack.

Changing your mind feels like losing status

The brain switches from truth seeking to self defense. This isn’t stupidity – we’re evolutionarilary hard wired for this as our early survival as a species depended on forming close alliances for food, shelter and protection.

Decline of critical thinking (and where it comes from)

Critical thinking takes practice, humility, and discomfort. Several things undercut it, in my opinion:

Educational systems that reward memorization and test results over the ability to reason.

Social media algorhythms that only show people information which confirms their world view.

Lack of time to process, analyze and verify information.

Moral certitude – looking at people and ideas as good vs evil without consideration of uncertainty or complexity.

These lead to people asking, “who said this?” vs “Is this true?”. This leads to the conclusion that if the information (post, meme, etc.) is shared by someone on “our side” it’s true. If it is from anyone else, it’s false.

I have a lot more going on in my brain, and I will share it later, like it or not

Thanks for taking the time to read this first installment.