Defusing American Anger : A Guide to Understanding Our Fellow Citizens and Reducing Us-vs-Them Polarization

America is deeply divided. We don't just disagree on the issues; we increasingly view people on the "other side" as profoundly immoral and dangerous. And our contempt, anger, and fear can affect our stances on issues, making us more hardened in our views and less willing to compromise. There’s a chance our problems will get a lot worse before they get better. To avoid worst-case scenarios of chaos, dysfunction, and violence, we need more people — from politicians to pundits to everyday citizens — to see the nature of our divides more clearly. We need more people to see that much of our contempt and fear is based on distorted, overly pessimistic views of the "other side." We need more people to see how our overly negative views of each other create a self-reinforcing feedback cycle of conflict. You'll enjoy this book if any of these things are true about you: • You want to learn why us-vs-them polarization is such a big problem (or you're skeptical that it's a problem). • You want to understand why the "other side" believes the seemingly strange things they believe. • You want to have less angry and more productive talks with people on the "other side." • You want to know what you can do to help prevent worst-case scenarios of chaos, dysfunction, and violence. • You're a political activist and want to be able to make more persuasive arguments to your opponents. There's a chance you may one day look back and think, "I wished I'd done more to help with the problem of our toxic, contemptuous divides." You owe it to yourself and the people you care about to consider the ideas in this book. This book is by Zachary Elwood, host of the psychology podcast People Who Read People, which sometimes focuses on toxic polarization. He's also the author of How Contempt Destroys Democracy, which is written for a liberal-leaning audience. "I can’t think of anyone I’ve seen who better practices what they preach, who better lives their ideals about depolarization. His book has an earnest, vulnerable, plainspoken style which parallels his speaking style in his podcast. He seems throughout to anticipate negative reactions from readers on both the left and the right..." — from a review by David Foster of Know The System