“You’re either with us, or against us.”
Christians are right. No, Muslims are right! No, atheists are right!!! NO, SCIENTOLOGISTS ARE RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My politician is better than your politician. My sports team is better than your sports team. East Coast/West Coast!
Polarization. Us vs. Them. Is it tearing us apart? That’s what we’re talking about this week.
We begin with our first memories of “Them” as the opposition. Find out what “Them” we feared as kids. Then we talk about why so many big-issue topics are framed as “Us vs. Them” — and how driving the urge to take sides is for humans.
There are some strange Us vs. Them arguments out there, and we devote some time to that before discussing how much the Internet has played into this mentality.
Next, we move on to what we see as the most dangerous polarized topic out there right now, before stepping back a little bit and discussing Us vs. Them in the geek community.
We get it: sometimes it’s hard to not get dragged into these battles. We discuss Us vs. Them battles we’ve been pulled into, and then we talk about those we actually agree with.
We close this week’s episode with this question: What’s the solution to stopping such polarizing views?
So take a side and tell us we’re wrong or right in the comments below…because, apparently, there can be no middle ground. Even though that’s really what this week’s show is all about.
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I’m still trying to figure out if the Reptilians are “Us” or “Them.” It would help if I knew whether their plans for world domination will ultimately be successful.
Faux news is the best polarizer in the USA, IMO. Remember Mustardgate? The faux outrage made me love spicy mustard even more. Every time I buy my spicy mustard, I feel a deep satisfaction. True story.
I totally missed Mustardgate, but just read about it. I agree that FoxNews is one of the most polarizing, ridiculous things out there…and I think CNN is a batshit insane organization humanity could easily do without. It’s that kind of thing that just amazes me, just hammering away at everything, all the time. There are things about Obama I don’t like, but the guy could cure cancer and FoxNews would find an angle from which to attack the guy.
(Figuring there might be something online about Obama curing cancer…yep, I saw some people saying if he cured cancer, FoxNews would fume about him putting oncologists out of work.”)
And, while reading up on Mustardgate, I saw the bit about ketchup on a burger. Dunno what Hannity and Co. do with their burgers, but you order a Whataburger with cheese in the Lone Star State, it’s not coming with ketchup. (That said, I put ketchup on my veggie burgers, but clearly, simply by eating veggie burgers, I’m out to destroy the world 😉 )
Stop trying to turn us to your hippie liberal ways!
/listens to Lee Greenwood on max volume
I’m as unAmerican as they come. I eat all that furrin food. And there’s literally fir in my food, come to think of it. q
OK fir = fur and q = “2 cats.” My computer is rebelling again.