political divide

These days here in the US, the political divisions seem to be the result of simplified thinking. Perhaps it’s always been that way (don’t expect it to change). Likely this is true around the world, but the extremes surely vary from place to place. People refer to liberals and conservatives, democrats and republicans, left and right, as if these terms were mutually exclusive. Each person is different, with their combination of viewpoints and beliefs. When placing people into simplistic, mutually exclusive categories, we are biased against clear thinking. A stereotypical conservative sees all liberals as bad and everything liberals do as bad, and a stereotypical liberal vice versa. The reality is that there is good and bad on both sides of the political divide and much truth and falsehood as well. When people refer to something as all bad or all good, the nuanced reality is that there is usually good and bad.