Re:A new theory about political polarization
by antiutopian on Monday June 29, 2020 @03:45PM
(#23681730)
Agreed. It must be a strange time to be alive for people who are not Marxists! Today's political polarization in the US is rooted in the 08 financial crisis, followed by a weak recovery, combined with skyrocketing inequality, and now a pandemic absolutely mishandled by the US administration, plus now a new recession! How could we expect people's political views to stay the same after such experiences?
Re:A new theory about political polarization
by ChainOfFools on Monday June 29, 2020 @02:40PM
(#23680843)
Isn't this just Marxism with all the Marxist theory about class struggle rephrased into plain conflict theory language and de-jargonified?
Re:A new theory about political polarization
by tehjoker on Monday June 29, 2020 @04:18PM
(#23682251)
Yes. It's much more understandable that way (and I don't have a useless Marxist academic position to justify). Frankly, I find it rather difficult to disagree with the premise of historical materialism.
You can disagree with Marx's conclusions about which factors were important, but the basic assumption seems solid. The major exception that comes to mind where ideas might dominate material need is a situation present in the US today where the media so dominantly control narrative, they have been able to mostly squeeze other ideas out of the discourse. This is sort of like fighting entropy, possible, but requires extra energies to do.
I hadn't heard of conflict theory before, so thanks for the tip.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_materialism
Historical materialism is the idea that politics comes from changes in the material conditions of a population. When people need something and aren't getting it, then they meet others in the same situation and compare notes, then you get a political formation.
The United States is refusing to adapt to the needs of the bottom strata of society, and as they learn they can't change the system by voting or protesting, more and more radical steps are taken until the goals of the majority of people will be achieved. The refusal of the government to give even an inch is causing this to happen. Just look at the Bernie Sanders campaign that was talking about state funded medical care for all people, how popular it was and is, and how the DNC merc'd it.
Then we had a pandemic happen that showed definitively how beneficial that policy would be, and the state still refuses to lift a finger to help anyone other than the business community with the exception of a paltry one time $1200 and some unemployment benefits. It took pushing to get Joe Biden to even call for free testing let alone free care!
Edit: To be clear, my objection to this paper is that even though it is authored by physicists, people who should have a clear understanding of materialism (!!) they merely build computer models of ideas, and in that they are merely pontificating on liberal idealism. Their models will be flawed because ideas only "catch" when they find fertile soil. That soil is material reality.