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

by Kat Timpf

The need to do something differently is obvious to anyone paying attention, but the government bypasses this by instead doing what I’m trying so hard to bring attention to in this book: turning us against each other with politics and manipulative narratives. Often, the narratives are rooted in partisanship. Remember when President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2009, less than eight months into his presidency? It seemed at first premature, and then eventually like a total joke to anyone unbiased, considering that the ceremony wound up taking place just days after Obama declared that he would be sending 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan. In September 2013, when I was in Los Angeles as part of my work for a writing fellowship, I went to the University of California to ask students about whether they felt that then-President Obama deserved the award. Answering that question was easy: Yes! What was more difficult, apparently, was my follow-up question: Why? “I just feel like in general being a good guy, it’s just creating a lot more peace and like, mellow,” said one student, adding, “I love Obama, and I love everything he is doing. I just feel like everyone is so hard on him and it’s only his second year.” When I asked one student what the difference was between President Obama and President Bush invading the Middle East, she replied: “Bush, I just didn’t like him. I just don’t.” If you want to see the video of these interviews, I’m pretty sure it’s st...