[HN Gopher] Study: A threat from a common enemy may no longer un...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Study: A threat from a common enemy may no longer unite polarized
       Americans
        
       Author : PaulHoule
       Score  : 11 points
       Date   : 2022-12-03 21:45 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (phys.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (phys.org)
        
       | mindcrime wrote:
       | _" Intensely polarized societies seem to create this backfire
       | effect where, rather than bringing groups together, exposure to a
       | common enemy makes them more likely to accuse each other of being
       | on the enemy's side."_
       | 
       | Seems like the "money quote" to me. If I'd had to guess what the
       | conclusion of this article was going to be before reading it, I'd
       | have guessed something very close to that. It's a pretty obvious
       | scenario really... The easiest way to justify hate for your
       | opponent in the face of a common enemy would be to make exactly
       | that kind of leap "You're taking the side of our 'common enemy'
       | therefore YOU ARE THE ENEMY!"
       | 
       | What I wish I knew, is how to prevent this kind of thing from
       | spreading all through our society and polluting everyone's
       | thinking.
        
       | anigbrowl wrote:
       | It strikes me as highly significant that when an external threat
       | is evoked, one group of people becomes more willing to trust
       | partisans of the opposite persuasion, while the other becomes
       | less so.
       | 
       | In an interesting coincidence, the nominal leader of the latter
       | group called for the termination of the existing legal order,
       | specifically including the Constitution, earlier today.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | version_five wrote:
       | It's hard to imagine a situation where a common enemy wouldn't
       | just immediately be used for political and ideological purposes,
       | like what happened with Covid.
       | 
       | Maybe a Watchmen-type attack on the whole world. Even there I'd
       | be surprised. We're not only too polarized but I think have too
       | entrenched of a power system for anyone at the "top" to ever
       | think that different sidex working together would be in their
       | (those at the top's) interests. I suspect what happens when a
       | common enemy does arrive is some kind of collapse.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2022-12-03 23:01 UTC)