The “space between us” is the political space between us, our inability to come together, across groups, in politics to do the things necessary for a successful society, such as cooperating and compromising. The “distance” in political space is a manifestation of the psychological space between groups, how similar or different we think other groups of people are from our own group, and thus how much we think that we should cooperate with them.
This psychological space is influenced by geographic space: When groups are separated on the Earth’s surface—say into different sides of a city—our minds use this geographic separation as a shortcut to believe the groups are different; they become separated in our minds and this then spills over into our behavior, separating us in politics. This separation has consequences. If we cannot cooperate politically, we cannot do the things necessary to have a functioning modern society, such as building infrastructure and caring for the needy. [...]
It’s really high up there. I would absolutely put it above things like social media, and I would even put it above age, even above income. A rich white person will vote very differently depending on where they live and who else they live around. Whether they live in a red state or a blue state, whether they live in a diverse city or a homogenous city, they’re going to behave differently. It’s going to be one of the number one predictors for how we behave.
Geography is a fundamental thing in our psychology; it shapes the way we think about the world and other people. It’s hard to imagine social media having such an effect on our politics and turning us so tribal, if we weren’t already segregated by these other geographic realities.
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