What's Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies

News media is infamous for what we could call “destructive cherry-picking”—a selection bias that sees negative stories as the most newsworthy, because they draw the most interest

We like to think of bigotry as something that other people do. But we’re all capable of rank bigotry when our environment pushes the right buttons in our psyche. Political bigotry is as real as any other bigotry. In a 2014 paper on political polarization in the U.S., political scientist Shanto Iyengar and researcher Sean J. Westwood find evidence t

But perhaps the most important development to emerge from the Enlightenment was the principle of free speech. America’s free speech laws would open the gates to another Liberal Games market: the marketplace of ideas, where anyone could vie for attention and influence and over time, the cream would rise to the top. Free speech would allow citizens t

As great as civilization may be, 500 generations isn’t enough time for evolution to take a shit. So now we’re all here living in this fancy new habitat, using brain software optimized to our old habitat.

as the political parties purified ideologically, political identity took on more meaning. Over time, the parties also began to purify culturally.

Geographic sorting and political junk food make a lethal combo, ripe for disgust. It’s hard to feel dehumanizing disgust for people you know personally. Less hard when you rarely see your enemies in person. Less hard still when destructive cherry-picking teaches you only the worst about them. As affective polarization has risen, political opponents

Low-rung thinking, low-rung morality, and low-rung tactics all stem from the same concept: When the Primitive Mind is running the show, our minds are in ancient survival mode, and politics becomes a vehicle for tribalism. When our heads are here, truth, moral consistency, and fair play all go out the window.

Everyone is principled when it comes to people and ideas they’re tribally aligned with—a person’s moral integrity is judged precisely by how well they apply their principles to the people they can’t stand.

The real test of any argument is how well it stands up to rigorous criticism. When you’re confident in your viewpoint, you love a chance to throw it into the ring with other arguments and show off its strength. It works like boxing: the stronger the opponents you’ve beaten, the better your ranking. That’s why a strong college paper always includes