Political polarization is not only a problem of the US’ two-party system. Populism and the rise of right wing parties all over the world is contributing immensely to divided societies. There are divides on local, national, and international levels. Black Lives Matter versus Blue Lives Matter, right-wing versus mainstream politicians, China versus US.
Communication between opposite sides seems more and more difficult every day. This is very visible on social media, where objective discussions quickly turn into personal fights and streams of insults. But that is not how you create productive political discussion. Why is that and how can we solve it?

According to The Economist, it is accepted widespread knowledge, that inequality has increased. However, when looking at the data and accounting for changes in demographics (such as marital status), economic inequality has actually remained constant over the past decades (Check out the Economist’s The Intelligence Podcast from Dec 03, 2019: With allies like these: NATO’s bickering leaders hold a summit). Why has rising inequality become general knowledge, while the data is not clear on it? Because the actual inequality doesn’t matter as much as the effects of it and the effects of inequality might have actually changed significantly over the past decades.

In the past, technological change has been slow enough so that the largest part of the population could spend their career following one profession, more or less. From Benz’ first gasoline car in 1886 to Ford’s Model T in 1908, the first mass-produced car, there was enough time for all conservative horse carriage riders to retire, while the younger one’s quickly learned to drive cars instead. The impact would have been quite different if that change had happened in less than a decade, which is the speed of development we see today.