Kevin Elliott: It's important for you to know that a chunk of conservative dark money has recently been lobbed at academic research on "polarization," and it bears reflecting on why a framing of the US's contemporary crisis that automatically suggests there's blame on all sides would be favored by them

It's important for you to know that a chunk of conservative dark money has recently been lobbed at academic research on "polarization," and it bears reflecting on why a framing of the US's contemporary crisis that automatically suggests there's blame on all sides would be favored by them

Yet another essay from Edsall framing main political problem as “polarization”. I will boldly state we should not want to meet in the middle on the questions like whether black peoples votes should count. Its in fact bad to not feel “polarized” toward the party that answers “no” to that question

not even both sides, i think they're trying to pretend they're being unfairly persecuted

Yep, they’ve been whining about how unfair life has been since they lost the Civil War and this all is just the 2024 version of it, given that they are fighting for the same things their predecessors did (women and racial minorities as slaves, workers as indentured servants or slaves)

Literally: Charles Koch funds a research center of some scholars quoted in the article to the tune of $3M. That shows how much “polarization” is worth to him.

And no, they don’t disclose their funding source in their talks.

That headline reminds me of the proximate cause of the Civil War: Southerners realizing they had lost the ability to silence opponents of slavery.

It's important to shine a light on this and ask, "Is it really 'polarization' when one side of the spectrum remains more or less in equilibrium while the other moves radically away from what had been the 'center'?" Polarization implies a shared agency which masks the excesses of the one side.

Got any links or articles on this you’ve found helpful? 🙏🏼

This is more a thing I've learned about via informal networks, but there's publicly available info laying around that a casual search turned up. I'm sure it wouldn't be that hard for an actual journalist to track down

Update: bsky.app/profile/well...

Lmao sadly charleskochfoundation.org/news/top-sch...

Polarization Research Lab Launched to Solve U.S. Divisioncharleskochfoundation.org Top university scholars are collaborating to launch the Polarization Research Lab to research, understand, and come up with solutions for division in America.

Lol woooof

Might as well point out that Democrats offer to compromise and Republicans refuse absolutely, starting at least in the Obama years. Gingrich wrote the doctrine. So even in Edsall’s facile analysis, Republicans are still the problem.

Get back to me when Republicans stop wanting their own alternative facts to believe.

Hard to take seriously a guy who asserts Republicans don't want Black votes to count. But, yeah, the polarization explanation is getting way too much attention.

Dude this is pathetic

Please do not do ad hominem in my mentions

"please do not commit ad hominem by pointing out that the guy who says republicans aren't racist works for a literal racist republican organization"

I'm like baffled... like dude come on with that

The cartoon image in that top post on his page is also “AI” slop, for bonus anti-ethical points.

How so? Oh, nevermind. You seem more interested in trolling than thinking. Cheers.

What's your theory on why it's so hard to vote in Black ZIP codes in the South?

I should add that voter turnout not synonymous with access, but they do overlap. And this map shows some interesting differences. My sense is that a lot ---but not all--- of what is shown here is driven by class. www.lgbtmap.org/democracy-ma...

Movement Advancement Project | Voter Turnout Percentagewww.lgbtmap.org Voter turnout is an important measure of the participation in and access to elections within a given state. This map depicts 2020 data from the MIT Election Data + Science?Lab’s?Election Performance I...

Hard? Tell me more about the hurdles and show me some data. I ask because, for example, turnout in Georgia has gone up since the law was enacted that our President called Jim Crow 2.0.

As a Georgia voter, I humbly ask that you please take care NOT to confuse our determination and willingness to navigate obstacles and stand in lines for far too long in order to vote with an implication that everything must be fine bc we persisted despite others making it more difficult. Thanks.

says the person who writes opinion for wapo lmao

reminds of a neat word from when i studied polisci in undergrad: “unipolar”

In a different national context, this is why I argue in public that Israeli society has become less polarized and more extreme, rather than increasingly polarized. A key point here is to have a good analytical approach to polarization, rather than relying on opinion polls of inter group attitudes.

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