I think you’re probably right, but I’m also not sure how much can can infer from the analysis as stated. Maybe you need both First Past the Post and Facebook for things to get this bad, and fixing only one of those things is sufficient.
I guess one way to check would be to compare to other countries with better electoral systems. Are they suffering from the same extreme Left-Right polarization as the US?
This also leaves me curious. Do other countries have the equivalent of Fox news (ie news specifically for one side of the tribal divide, constantly attacking the other side)?
To be clear, the so called “Liberal Media” / “mainstream media” also contains a lot of tribal narrativization, but Fox news is special (I think?) in being the only major TV news outlet that deviates, and pushes an opposite and antithetical narrative.
Have a look at Poland—in a way, the late 90s is an exercise in failures of a multi-partisan system, whereas the current state (mid-2020) is an exercise in failures of a bi-partisan system (that Poland seems to be hurtling towards). We’ve recently (as recent as over the last decade) seen an emergence of media outlets that tend to be rather clearly biased—enough that, at this point, the general population is often quick to associate a particular TV station with a particular party, even.
Obviously, there have always been divisions in this regard, where a media outlet was considered “leftist” or “rightist”, or whatever… but it feels as though it hasn’t been much of a debate in 2008, and in 2020 it feels as if it’s mentioned in every conversation. It has gotten to the point where both sides will accuse you of reading “fringe media” if you opt for something neither side has their (perceived) fingers in.
I think you’re probably right, but I’m also not sure how much can can infer from the analysis as stated. Maybe you need both First Past the Post and Facebook for things to get this bad, and fixing only one of those things is sufficient.
I guess one way to check would be to compare to other countries with better electoral systems. Are they suffering from the same extreme Left-Right polarization as the US?
This also leaves me curious. Do other countries have the equivalent of Fox news (ie news specifically for one side of the tribal divide, constantly attacking the other side)?
To be clear, the so called “Liberal Media” / “mainstream media” also contains a lot of tribal narrativization, but Fox news is special (I think?) in being the only major TV news outlet that deviates, and pushes an opposite and antithetical narrative.
Have a look at Poland—in a way, the late 90s is an exercise in failures of a multi-partisan system, whereas the current state (mid-2020) is an exercise in failures of a bi-partisan system (that Poland seems to be hurtling towards). We’ve recently (as recent as over the last decade) seen an emergence of media outlets that tend to be rather clearly biased—enough that, at this point, the general population is often quick to associate a particular TV station with a particular party, even.
Obviously, there have always been divisions in this regard, where a media outlet was considered “leftist” or “rightist”, or whatever… but it feels as though it hasn’t been much of a debate in 2008, and in 2020 it feels as if it’s mentioned in every conversation. It has gotten to the point where both sides will accuse you of reading “fringe media” if you opt for something neither side has their (perceived) fingers in.