@carnage4life so there were no problems in America to address? This system was working well for all Americans? https://infosec.exchange/@codinghorror/116098902726924703

@codinghorror Are things better now? 🙃

@carnage4life and a highly polarized two party system is the worst form of democracy, so… https://infosec.exchange/@codinghorror/116104218445674780

@codinghorror @carnage4life You do *not* have a polarized two-party system. You have one boring middle:of-the-spectrum party and a corrupt lying cheating fascist-adjacent ultra-extremist party. The problem is unipolar.

@codinghorror @carnage4life I forgot to mention racist and misogynist.

@timbray @carnage4life I agree but scholars disagree with you on this point (that we don't have a wildly polarized two party system). That's .. demonstrably untrue. Email me for all the citations. They are in my timeline, too. Either way. Doesn't matter.

@codinghorror @carnage4life I guess the problem is the word "polarized" - the etymology is straightforward from "polar" as in "polar" opposites", and thus the word has the strong connotation that the poles are unreasonable and truth is somewhere in the middle. When you're talking about current US politics, that’s actively misleading and dangerous. I think anyone wanting to argue seriously about the current scene should really stop using "polarized" and "polarization".

@timbray @carnage4life yes, I mean in terms of extremes us vs them, either you are with us or I have sworn a blood oath against all of your kind, etc. It’s palpable here and disturbing

@codinghorror @carnage4life OK, but you talk about "us" and "them" as if they're equivalent forces, and they’re just not. The problem is that one of the factions is insane. It is that specifically that is causing the breakdown of conversation, not some generalized bipolar extremism.

@timbray @carnage4life hard, HARD DISAGREE; the incentives are all aligned to create this dynamic for maximum "if it bleeds, it leads" competitive tension, especially here in the USA. In fact, the problem is N=2. N>2 means you can form coalitions and there's more than "us and them" to choose from. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Us_and_Them_(song)