Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity - Lilliana Mason

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• 
  caesar963
  January 17th, 2022
  

  

  Pink Floyd warned everyone abt this.

  Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity - Lilliana Mason
• 
  Thamus
  January 17th, 2022
  

  Identity is the crack cocaine of the masses.

  Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity - Lilliana Mason
• 
  A.B.B
  January 17th, 2022
  

  

  Oh wow, I just finished the description and was about to post it. I didn’t like the description by Amazon as it doesn’t do the book justice, here’s my attempt:

  Political polarization in America is at an all-time high. For the first time in more than twenty years, research has shown that members of both parties hold strongly unfavorable views of their opponents. It is no longer a simple divide over the policies that the government should pursue; instead, the disagreements have become more affectively charged. Partisans increasingly dislike members of the other party; they don’t want their children to marry outside of party; only forge social connections with people who share their partisanship; and will even choose to suffer individual losses if it means that someone from the other party suffers more.

  Lilliana Mason argues that group identifications have changed the way we think and feel about ourselves and our opponents and that thinking of party as a social identity also explains why partisanship is more important for shaping political behaviour than simple policy preferences. If a person’s identity is at stake, they will have strong emotional reactions to political outcomes despite the gains or losses that they might face, even if the stakes are low. This understanding of partisanship, however, is only the starting point for Mason.

  She says that party is not the only social identity that we have; our faith, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, occupation and a host of other things shape who we are, that help define how we interpret and react to our social world. She reveals that citizens who have determined their identities are significantly more likely to be engaged in politics. To many, higher engagement and activism are considered positive things. Mason points out, however, that much of this activism is not intended to achieve a specific goal, but to express blind support for a particular side. The result is a reinforcing cycle where activism spurs more positive feelings about their group (and negative feelings about the other side), spurring more activism which spurs even more polarization.

  Although the polarizing effects of social divisions have simplified our electoral choices and increased political engagement, they have not been a force that is helpful for American democracy. Bringing together theory from political science and social psychology, Uncivil Agreement clearly describes this increasingly “social” type of polarization in American politics and will add much to our understanding of contemporary politics, and how to fix it.

  Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity - Lilliana Mason

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