Getting Discomfortable with Partisanship

Partisanship In Episode 85, I look at the recent election in the United States and the political partisanship that seems to be tearing the country in two. The dictionary on my computer defines partisanship as, “prejudice in favour of a particular cause; bias”. Though we often associate partisanship with political allegiance, I think it really is a form of prejudice (for me at very least). At a recent Racism Anonymous meeting, someone pointed out that it sounded like I had a prejudice against organized religion, and I realized they were right! When the subject of organized religion comes up, an aggressive emotion arises in me that fuels rejection, defence, judgement, and anger. Though I have crafted many convincing logical arguments over the years against organized religion, I realized that the real motivation was actually this unpleasant emotion. I consider that to be a prejudice, when your beliefs are powered by an old emotional association from the past. I’ve noticed that the same is true for right-wing politics. I have an old unpleasant emotional association that comes up and colours my thinking about conservativism, fueling aggressive rejection instead of just neutral disagreement. I suspect much of the United States is caught in similar kinds of political prejudice based on their upbringing, culture, and life experiences. This emotional contamination triggers other biases as well, like confirmation bias and our innate in-group bias. This means that we tend to notice only the evidence that confirms our pre-existing beliefs and then view anyone who disagrees with our “side” as an enemy. These biases give the idea of “the left” and “the right” a powerful sense of reality, even though they are just intersubjective fictions. Our biases make it feel like we can divide people into 2 overly simplistic “parties” and then demonize the other side in a misguided “us” vs “them” mindset. When really, we’re all the same. This episode looks at ways to reframe our thinking so as not to get caught up in our own partisanship.