Innocent Monsters

Both sides believe their narrative about the other (that one represents an "environment of hate" and the other represents "malicious dishonesty") are confirmed by nearly every event that occurs. Yet these same narratives, when deployed by well-intentioned people trying to win, transform ordinary citizens into contributors to the very polarization they're fighting. What changes when the structure of the problem is not new information, but the impossibility of escaping it through conventional means?

• The narratives don't need facts to survive. A mail bombing becomes evidence of Trump's incitement on one side and a false flag operation on the other. Each side abstracts the event into whatever confirms what they already believe, making contradictory narratives equally self-reinforcing.

• Good people make it worse by trying to win. Speaking truth to power, campaigning hard, and winning elections (the tools we're told will fix polarization) actually deepen the gyre because they activate both narratives simultaneously.

• The two stories feed each other infinitely. When the left sees malicious dishonesty in media coverage, it confirms the right's narrative. When the right sees an environment of hate being constructed, it confirms the left's narrative. There's no escape hatch.

• Resignation sets in because the usual solutions don't work. Elections won't fix it. Debate won't fix it. Being right won't fix it. Even victory in the political arena leaves the underlying structure untouched and strengthened.

• The only available response requires something most political actors won't do. Good faith engagement, a willingness to believe what others say about their intentions, and holding your own narrative in abeyance are not electoral strategies. They're the opposite. Yet they're the only path that doesn't make things worse.