Polarization, partisanship, and radicalization receive a great deal of academic attention. (I can't speak to the public mind, or political hobbyists.)
The book Why We Are Polarized [2020] by Ezra Klein surveys what was known at the time. Nationalization of politics, consolidation of media, death of journalism, election reform, campaign spending. TLDR: Politics used to have weird coalitions, where party was not strongly associated with positions. Then people sorted. Then people's identities (positions) fused into a kind of super identity. Now party is a strong predictor of position.
Rachel Bitecofer https://twitter.com/RachelBitecofer researched (negative) partisanship and used to talk about it. I don't know of an otherwise good intro.
People have always self-radicalized. Pamphlets and zines. Social media made it a self renewing pandemic. Root cause is probably a combo of algorithmic hate machines and social isolation. (People are increasingly anxious and isolated. These para-social relationships fill the void.)
Polarization, partisanship, and radicalization receive a great deal of academic attention. (I can't speak to the public mind, or political hobbyists.)
The book Why We Are Polarized [2020] by Ezra Klein surveys what was known at the time. Nationalization of politics, consolidation of media, death of journalism, election reform, campaign spending. TLDR: Politics used to have weird coalitions, where party was not strongly associated with positions. Then people sorted. Then people's identities (positions) fused into a kind of super identity. Now party is a strong predictor of position.
Rachel Bitecofer https://twitter.com/RachelBitecofer researched (negative) partisanship and used to talk about it. I don't know of an otherwise good intro.
People have always self-radicalized. Pamphlets and zines. Social media made it a self renewing pandemic. Root cause is probably a combo of algorithmic hate machines and social isolation. (People are increasingly anxious and isolated. These para-social relationships fill the void.)