Depolarization Isn’t Weakness—It’s Strength
Understanding division is how we keep our democracy healthy.
Every so often, I find it’s worth reiterating something fundamental about this project of understanding and reducing toxic polarization.
Depolarization is not about ignoring asymmetries of power or danger. It’s not pretending that all sides are equally right (or equally wrong). Real-world conflicts are rarely symmetrical, and acknowledging that is part of being intellectually honest.
At the same time, recognizing systemic threats—like authoritarian movements, disinformation campaigns, or media ecosystems that profit from outrage—can coexist with efforts to reduce hate, dehumanization, and moral contempt. In fact, if we want to respond effectively to those threats, we have to understand how they exploit our psychological wiring for outrage and tribalism.
Empathy is not endorsement.
Analysis is not neutrality.
Trying to understand the dynamics that drive division isn’t an evasion of moral responsibility; it’s a strategy for sustaining it. If we allow outrage and exhaustion to consume us, we become easier to manipulate, and the extremes gain ground.
The way forward demands courage: the courage to see without condemning, and the courage to understand without surrendering our moral clarity. The genuine rigor of analysis is its refusal to turn away from the messiness of truth. Depolarization is the relentless, difficult work of helping more of us stay human within the fray, rather than becoming weapons for a particular tribe.