Why We're Polarized
by Ezra Klein, Antonio M. Jaime, Luis Miller · first published 2020
77% recommend23% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Synthesizes research on US political polarization, covering its history, party sorting and tribal identity. It offers a structured overview of how the current divide formed.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
""America's political system isn't broken. The truth is scarier: it's working exactly as designed. In this book, journalist Ezra Klein reveals how that system is polarizing us -- and how we are polarizing it -- with disastrous results. "The American political system -- which includes everyone from voters to journalists to the president -- is full of rational actors making rational decisions given the incentives they face," writes political analyst Ezra Klein. "We are a collection of functional parts whose efforts combine into a dysfunctional whole." In Why We're Polarized, Klein reveals the st
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Very unlikely to be true. Pick up Ezra Klein's Why We're Polarized, he takes a look at the degree of polarisation in US society. Even during the cold war, civil rights fights, assassinations, students being shot on campus and cities on fire and McCarthyist persecutions…
on “Former Google CEO Calls Social Networks ‘Amplifiers for Idiots’” ↗So far my favorite books of 2022 are: Political ----------- Why We're Polarized Breaking the Two Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America I liked these two books together because they are two sides to the same coin and offers something I feel a lot of political…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books/courses of 2022? Why?” ↗If you want to go further down this rabbit hole, I'd recommend "Why We're Polarized" by Ezra Klein. It acts as a synthesis for a bunch of work just like this.
on “Zero Trust Information” ↗…The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 led to the downfall of the Dixiecrat faction of the Democratic party and the current ideological sort. Ezra Klein's book "Why We're Polarized" has a lot of good background on this.
on “Why is the university of California dropping the SAT?” ↗> This feels like another situation where the attempts to quell disinformation are having the opposite of their intended effect. I've just finished reading Why We're Polarized by Ezra Klein and there's an entire chapter on this: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_We%27re_Polarized It seems that humans have an in-built affinity for groups and group affiliation, so if your…
on “Doctors and pharmacists ramp up calls for Americans to stop using ivermectin” ↗…if things got as far as a civil war within the next decade. I wouldn't rule out a serious constitutional crisis though. EDIT: I'd highly recommend How Democracies Die, The Revolt of the Public, and Why We're Polarized for understanding the current circumstances.
on “Half of Americans anticipate a U.S. civil war soon” ↗…identity. Which is to say facts, beliefs, positions are besides the point. There have been many more recent follow ups, but the two books I read were Democracy for Realists by Achen and Bartels, and Why We're Polarized by Ezra Klein. As a recovering activist, this has been very hard for me to accept and adjust to. What hope is there if discourse and persuasion don't, can't work? I have no clue. So I just focus on…
on “Intel OEM Private Key Leak: A Blow to UEFI Secure Boot Security” ↗On the polarization, see the book Why We're Polarized: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_We%27re_Polarized While US-specific in some aspects (political party (self-)filtering), it also looks at things more generally (psychological studies on how humans…
on “The Only Force Stronger Than Polarization? Rising Home Prices” ↗…are a reaction to that and actually mostly about community and community interaction? Yes. Great writing on this from Jonathan Haidt (The Righteous Mind), Robert Putnam (Bowling Alone) and Ezra Klein (Why We're Polarized) and Vivek Murthy (Together). Haven't read these, but I've read about them. One of their main ideas is that when people lose trust in institutions and feel disconnected, they’re more likely to embrace…
on “The Friendship Recession: The lost art of connecting” ↗I would highly recommend the author's new book, Why We're Polarized. The model of the USA political system that he's built reminds me of the model Ben Thompson of Stratechery built to analyse the technology sector. Just as Stratechery takes the latest happenings in tech,…
on “Why We Can't Build” ↗…toxicity under the rug. If you'd like a good overview of the longer story, Ezra Klein, who just released a book on the subject, was on Chris Hayes' "Why is this Happening?" podcast earlier this week ("Why we're polarized, with Ezra Klein").
on “Ask HN: How do we stop the polarization/toxicicity filling the web?” ↗I just got my preordered copy of Ezra Klein's "Why We're Polarized" which professes to study this topic in detail, in particular how it relates to politics in the US https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49930783-why-we-re-polar... I have a feeling this issue is pretty…
on “Ask HN: How do we stop the polarization/toxicicity filling the web?” ↗Ezra Klein's book why we're polarized cover this a bit and basically studies show that intelligence level has little to do with what people believe and more so just affects their ability to defend whichever position they already hold.
on “How to stay sane in a world that rewards insanity” ↗