The Big Sort

What Hacker News says

1. RevekiusJul 2021
   I highly recommend reading "The Big Sort" by Bill Bishop to give you a better idea of why we look at "politics".

   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2569072-the-big-sort

   The idea is a lot less about politics, and more about being comfortable in the area you live in.

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2. tathougiesAug 2019
   The book 'the big sort' by bill bishop goes into this phenomenon in further detail.
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3. braythwaytFeb 2019
   One of those books-that-would-be-a-fantastic-long-essay is "The Big Sort," it tackles this exact problem.

   Modern life actually seems to be driving people into micro-cultures, rather than bringing people with different beliefs together.

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4. rossdavidhAug 2018
   You might be interested in reading "The Big Sort": https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2569072-the-big-sort The long and the short of it is, it's both.
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5. neelmJan 2016
   "The Big Sort" by Bill Bishop is a well researched book that explains the political fracturing of America.

   The topic is explains is expressed visually in these two maps, which shows county election results from 1976 to 2004. http://www.thebigsort.com/maps.php

   One of the point is that due to economy, mobility and choice, Americans decide to settle where people are like them the most, and that this results in deeper political boundaries, especially in the context of our electoral system.

   One takeaway is that individually we are not all different, and a single Democrat and Republican in a room would likely come up with compromises on differing issues. However when on Democrat/Republican is in a group of many like themselves, they tend to take the most extreme view, on average.

   The other is that there used to be more friendly relationships between senior senators on both sides of the aisle. They would gather regularly to have a few cocktails even if they have strongly differing views. These bonds made it possible for them to work as a bi-partisan team to get legislation passed. These relationships no longer exist the way they used to, and many politicians are much more transient in the time they spend in DC.

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6. iammiscJul 2021
   > To me, church attendance is about making the in/out group very clear. You may feel close to different political views based on your single church or flavor of Christianity, but that's still a pretty limited group.

   It's not really though. I mean, being Catholic (and honestly, I know so little about Protestantism that I don't really feel qualified to speak to it), there are a lot of politics in the church.

   In 'the Big Sort', the author Bill Bishop talks about how Americans are dividing themselves up by geography, religion (or lack thereof), jobs, education, etc. It's like we're splitting in to two different worlds.

   I've noticed it at church too. Frankly, the left-leaning Catholics have all left. We chock it up to things like abortion and sexual ethics but I don't buy it. Many right-leaning Catholics have severe disagreements with church preaching, especially on the topics of aid to foreigners, the responsibility of society with regards to health care, views on death penalty's usefulness, etc. The only difference to me, is that conservatives tend to value authority and order more, and thus remain catholic even when the church preaches things they don't like.

   > 2) the stated positions of many major religions on issues of abortion and inclusion.

   I guess, but man you should see my conservative friends after the priest gives a homily on immigration. If they left the church because of this, I'd accuse them of idolatry -- placing their views on immigration as more important than God. I accuse my leftist friends who leave because of abortion of the same. Independent of the religious and spiritual aspects, it seems to me to be abandoning your community, that has supported you for many years, simply because of one issue we disagree on. That's like leaving your wife because you can't agree on which style of house to buy -- at some point you need to compromise.

   It's weird because my left-leaning friend's parents are often still Catholic and have the same view as my family does on remaining part of the church even if what they preach is hard. Whereas my younger friends all left.

   The sad thing though is that I feel there is a lot of missed out opportunities for shared understanding. Despite classifying these parents as 'left-leaning' and myself being more 'right-leaning', I'd consider these people to be intelligent, thoughtful, and friends. Whereas with my own generation, if you label yourself a leftist, all of a sudden right-wingers are supposed to hate you, and vice versa. It just seems dehumanizing.

   I'd rather chat about politics in a friendly manner with a shared set of concerns over a doughnut on Sunday morning, than in an angry social media screed. But it seems like my generation prefers the latter. And frankly, from my perspective, it feels like my left-leaning friends simply left while we stayed behind to talk.

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