Episode 6: Pernicious Polarization

Wear is the Love Podcast #6

This week, we take on Thomas B. Edsall’s article, “America Has Split, and It’s Now in ‘Very Dangerous Territory.’” The articles, which is listed in the Top 5 below, covers “pernicious polarization” and some really fascinating studies about the level of polarization in the US. At the end, we also discuss the provocative question of the day: “Will there be a civil war in the US?”

Episode Notes

In the podcast, we mentioned this study out of Stanford on political sectarianism.

The Top 5 articles for your week:

1. “America Has Split, and It’s Now in ‘Very Dangerous Territory.’” (NYT)

   Because “Polarization has become a force that feeds on itself, gaining strength from the hostility it generates, finding sustenance on both the left and the right. A series of recent analyses reveals the destructive power of polarization across the American political system.”

2. “What fast fashion costs the world” (Experience Magazine)

   Because “Since 2000, the global production of clothing has doubled. Today, the average American buys about 68 new items of clothing a year.”

3. “The school shooting generation grows up” (Vox)

   Because school shootings began in the 80s, and those young kids that experienced them are now fully grown adults who are dealing with the consequences of the events themselves and the lack of language and healthcare and dialogue afterwards.

4. “The Dream of Virtual Reality” (Substack - Convivial Society)

   Because recent writing from David Chalmers argues for the actual “reality” of “virtual reality” and L.M. Sacasas dives into Chalmers’ points and asks some thought-provoking questions:
   
   For example, I wonder for how many of us the experience of the world is already so attenuated or impoverished that we might be tempted to believe that a virtual simulation could prove richer and more enticing? And how many of us already live as if this were in fact the case?…The claim that, even now, virtual realities can outstrip my experience of the world is increasingly plausible when I have lost the capacity to wonder at and delight in the gratuity and beauty of the world. And there may be many reasons why such capacities may have diminished, ranging from the ever-more complete enclosure of our experience within a frame of human artifice to the loss of the arts of perception and the power of social structures that eliminate the gift of leisure in principle and in practice for so many. In other words, I mean for us to consider how we might have already begun to sever our relation to our common world long before the virtual worlds Chalmers envisioned are, if ever, realized.

5. “A Grand Unified Theory of Buying Stuff” (Wired Magazine)

   Because one writer discovered that much of the time, the stuff we buy needs even more stuff. And during a supply chain crisis, that’s a critical realization.
   
   I am learning about the supply chain, procurement, product life cycle, and overall greenhouse gas emissions of the goods we buy. When I opened a spreadsheet to calculate the emissions of my drum machine excursion, listing all the stuff I’d bought and the fractal stuff inside it, it quickly ballooned into hundreds of lines. And I closed the spreadsheet because, well, here I am. To prevent this from happening again, I’ve come up with a Personal Theory of Stuffness, a way to structure and understand my local goods ecosystem, especially digital goods.