A dangerous binary

Even people fighting zealotry can't cope with evidence challenging their fixed ideas

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters; Fransico de Goya, c 1799

This is an expanded version of my column in today’s Times (£) of London.

Today, two warring tribes slug it out in order to fell the other once and for all. No prisoners will be taken by either side. Peace will not break out once the battle is finally over. Any idea that the divisions tearing American society apart will subside after the result of the US presidential election becomes known is surely one for the birds.

This isn’t just because the result may be bitterly contested by the losing side, whichever that may be. There are now certain issues — and the choice of US president is one such — which have become unrelentingly binary. 

Many supporters of either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris won't hear a word against their champion or in favour of their opponent. The same is true of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. 

The leader in question is either a sanctified and untouchable hero who can do no wrong or an irredeemable villain who can do no right. The idea that a politician is capable of both good and bad, or that voting for a bad candidate because the other one seems so much worse is a reasonable position to take, seems to have gone out of the window. 

Even mild expressions of either criticism or support directed at the “wrong” political leader, or over a variety of deeply divisive issues, have explosively wrecked social engagements, friendships and even family relationships.

What’s caused this utterly implacable polarisation?