How Contempt Destroys Democracy Quotes

“If you’re someone fighting for fair and just outcomes (however you define that), if you fight in a way that amplifies political animosity, you may end up helping create a world that is less fair and less just. This is why it’s important to pursue one’s political aims in depolarizing, de-escalating, and persuasive ways. And this is entirely possible: You can work toward any political goal while avoiding dehumanizing and insulting your political opponents, and while speaking in persuasive, respectful ways.”
― Zachary Elwood, How Contempt Destroys Democracy: An American Liberal's Guide to Toxic Polarization

“Human conflict is not like chess, where each side has the same exact pieces and follows the exact same rules. Human groups are messy. Human groups can have very different traits, motivations, and methods of engagement.

Another way to put this is that human groups in conflict are asymmetrical: they don’t match up exactly.

When in conflict, people on both sides will try to compare the groups, often in order to build a case for why “the other side is much worse.” But the asymmetrical aspects of the two groups means that they’ll often be making bad and biased comparisons.”
― Zachary Elwood, How Contempt Destroys Democracy: An American Liberal's Guide to Toxic Polarization

“When liberals confidently arrive at highly pessimistic narratives about what drives conservatives’ behavior, it will arouse conservatives' anger and amplify the toxicity of our divides.”
― Zachary Elwood, How Contempt Destroys Democracy: An American Liberal's Guide to Toxic Polarization

“When talking about polarization, many people will try to assign blame to various groups: “It’s the media,” “It’s politicians trying to get power,” “It’s the political party machines manipulating us,” “It’s the rich trying to divide us,” “It’s the colleges.” And there are valid points to be made about how various organizations and systems and institutions amplify the effects of polarization — but it’s also true that those systems and organizations are made up of people. The same dynamics that can make individual people become polarized can make groups of people and organizations become polarized.”
― Zachary Elwood, How Contempt Destroys Democracy: An American Liberal's Guide to Toxic Polarization

“Insults and threats are the raw materials of our contempt and fear; they’re what we use to build our stories of the other side’s badness. And as conflict progresses, that can start to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Because we see the other side as dehumanizing and threatening us, we in turn can justify dehumanizing them. Some people on both sides start to become the hateful, threatening people the other side imagines they are.”
― Zachary Elwood, How Contempt Destroys Democracy: An American Liberal's Guide to Toxic Polarization

“A simplified way to think of toxic polarization is as a feedback loop of animosity. One group’s animosity creates more animosity in the other group, which in turn creates more animosity in the first group, and so on. As more and more insults and threats are produced, both groups view the other group as more immoral and dangerous, which makes more people speak in contemptuous and insulting ways. As each group’s views of the “other side” get more and more pessimistic, contempt and fear grow.”
― Zachary Elwood, How Contempt Destroys Democracy: An American Liberal's Guide to Toxic Polarization

“Polarization becomes a serious and dangerous problem when many people have very negative views of people on the “other side” — not just disagreeing but hating and fearing them. When high levels of contempt and fear are involved, this is what’s referred to as toxic polarization (and by other names, like psychological polarization, affective polarization, and pernicious polarization). In countries that are toxically polarized, it’s common for people to call their political opponents “horrible” and “evil,” and use other dehumanizing language. High levels of contempt and fear lead to the behaviors that can tear countries apart.”
― Zachary Elwood, How Contempt Destroys Democracy: An American Liberal's Guide to Toxic Polarization

“People concerned about worst-case scenarios — like threats to democracy, authoritarian actions, high levels of political violence, or civil war-like scenarios — should want to reduce toxic polarization in America because that's how we’ll make those things less likely.”
― Zachary Elwood, How Contempt Destroys Democracy: An American Liberal's Guide to Toxic Polarization