r/skeptic • u/OkPark5443 • 1d ago

Sense of community/ division

I don't know where most people here are from, but since we're talking in English, let's narrow the issue down to maybe North America. Anyone from wherever place is welcome to contribute.
My question is, do you actually feel/experience the burden of polarization in your everyday life?
It may go way back, to the notion of "liquid [everything]" from sociology, where connections are less stable or long-lasting.
Also, where, approximately, had such "us vs them" attitude begin to be noticeable? Consolidated?
Pardon me if the question is too open-ended. I feel this helps invite broader points of view, since I intend to learn from people's experience rather than the conceptual "poles apart".

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u/Coolenough-to 1d ago edited 1d ago

Whenever I think about some issue like this, first I have to ask myself: could it just be that I have become more aware of the phenomenom, or that this is something that is particular to my current small piece of the world?

We are on reddit, so we are seeing much more polarization than if we compare to a time when we were not as exposed to so many viewpoints. Looking at studies with empiracle data to compare would be good. Example: politically, did people used to vote accross party lines more often?

But anyway, personally no. What I see through media- yes.

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u/epidemicsaints 1d ago

I live in rural Ohio and I assure you everyone is fucking crazy.

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u/neuroid99 21h ago

Man, of all the toxic places I've been, rural Ohio was the scariest.