Why are people so divided?

It has been a tough period for the UK Prime Minister May since the Brexit referendum. It is just not possible for May to make everyone happy; even it seems that no one is happy about May’s Brexit plan.  A number of ministers resigned over the matter of Brexit. British people are famous for the rationality and moderatism of its democratic politics that Winston Churchill failed to win the election just after he won a world war for Britain. However, in this time, we see a completely different story. Moreover, we do not only see this in Britain, but we also see a similar story elsewhere in the world. Why are people becoming so divided?

This is a very difficult question to provide an accurate answer, but I would like to share my thoughts on this issue. Firstly, when one person is becoming more extreme, then his or her opponent has to be more aggressive and more extreme to counter the extreme behaviour. This will pull two opposite parties further apart from each other. Secondly,  the current political questions seem like one dimensional but are actually multidimensional. For example, Brexit seems to only have two possible answers, one is “to leave the EU”, and the other is “to stay in the EU”; however, this is a multinational issue that involves migration policies, trade policies and even attitudes towards other European countries. Therefore, although people are put into two categories over the Brexit issue, they are even fighting with each other on more specific issues inside and outside their categories. Thirdly, it is easier for people to hear negative or opposite opinions nowadays. Because of the social networks (including social media) and the media, people are easier to get information, and what attracts people’s eyes the most is fight. People see that fighting over different opinions, and feel excited about it and has more incentives to join the fight, especially when they feel the side they support is losing the fight.

Overall, we are in a very divided world and we should accept different opinions, at least accept the existence of different opinions.