I Used to Like You Until...: (How Binary Thinking Divides Us)

by Kat Timpf

All too often, we will let a single difference in viewpoint or association be enough to write off another person entirely, even if we know nothing else about them.

Issues are often nuanced and complex, and people always are.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Binary thinking is the enemy of critical thinking. For some reason, we’ve largely limited ourselves to just two options on so many crucial, complex issues. Once you pick a side or a lens, you no longer have to think, because all the thinking has been done for you. No matter the issue, you’ll just go with whatever the people on your side are saying. You don’t have to challenge your beliefs or feel uncomfortable. Unfortunately, that stunts personal growth, as well as personal relationships that could have been fulfilling.

Refusing to interact with people you disagree with, after all, will inevitably lead to you believing incorrect assumptions about them.

Politics makes us fight with the people we actually know on behalf of people who don’t even know we exist.

Politics does an excellent job of making people argue with people they actually know on behalf of people who have no idea they even exist. If that sounds pathetic to you? You’re right. Simping generally is.

The problem with binary thinking isn’t only that it shuts us off from each other personally, or that it allows the government to get away with corruption, but that it can shut us off from being open to solutions or help from people just because of their political team.

Yes, they’re prohibitively concerned that liking one of my jokes on Instagram that aren’t even about politics might lead to the decimation of their entire careers.

Closing yourself off from people who think differently from you will make you more susceptible to believing incorrect assumptions about them, leaving you with a less informed view of the world than you might have otherwise.