A review by icallaci
Why We're Polarized by Ezra Klein

2.0

The title of this book is WHY We're Polarized, but it probably should be HOW We're Polarized. The author presents a lot of statistics to show how we've slid into the mess we're in but doesn't really address the underlying reasons, other than to cite the usual suspects of "racism," "the internet," "biased media," etc. I was hoping for more insight or depth or at least a possible connection to something I hadn't thought of before, but nope. Also, I realize this is a book about polarization, but the flip side of that is why so many people are coming together to believe the exact same things, en masse. We seem to have less diversity of thought, dividing us into a binary representation of ideas. Polarization not only separates us but also acts to coalesce factions into cohesive groups (the opposite of polarization), so ignoring that misses a big piece of the picture.