> Polarization comes about as a response to power players / media using wedge issues to divide voters into warring blocs
True, but those people don't tend to be centrists. :)
> centrist policies making their lives worse.
Also true to an extent. The middle is compromise, giving up something for the greater good, and not maximizing your take. The extremists promise that as soon as they're in power, they'll give you everything you ever wanted and crush that other side, and people eat that stuff up. Who are you going to vote for--the guy who promises you the world, or the guy who tells you you have to compromise?
> A fundamental reshaping of the media so as to not serve congealed pockets of wealth might help but nobody much has any appetite for that.
In the US anyway, this is a serious First Amendment issue. Judges are still reluctant to cede control of the Press to the government and the cases where it has have been very limited, or even rolled back. But last I checked the polling, a lot of the People were game for it, another sign of dictatorship winning out.
> They have started to realize that centrism is making their lives worse so they have been abandoning it for one of the two extremes.
Yup. The only thing they haven't realized yet is that after their extreme wins, their extreme is going to FUCK THEM UP.
True, but those people don't tend to be centrists. :)
> centrist policies making their lives worse.
Also true to an extent. The middle is compromise, giving up something for the greater good, and not maximizing your take. The extremists promise that as soon as they're in power, they'll give you everything you ever wanted and crush that other side, and people eat that stuff up. Who are you going to vote for--the guy who promises you the world, or the guy who tells you you have to compromise?
> A fundamental reshaping of the media so as to not serve congealed pockets of wealth might help but nobody much has any appetite for that.
In the US anyway, this is a serious First Amendment issue. Judges are still reluctant to cede control of the Press to the government and the cases where it has have been very limited, or even rolled back. But last I checked the polling, a lot of the People were game for it, another sign of dictatorship winning out.
> They have started to realize that centrism is making their lives worse so they have been abandoning it for one of the two extremes.
Yup. The only thing they haven't realized yet is that after their extreme wins, their extreme is going to FUCK THEM UP.
It'll be a hard lesson from forgotten history.