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Comment by jfengel | Hacker News Reader

Polarization benefits both sides. It just doesn't benefit the truth.

Sometimes one side or the other is on the side of truth, but even then, the other side benefits from the uncertainty. The further they are from that position the greater the relative benefit. If there's even the slightest hint of gray they benefit even more.

Representing the middle is a pure loss. Both sides benefit from the clarity of their positions and the ability to commit. Usually both sides will assume your are on one or the other, and both benefit from that. One side gets a slight advantage from your numbers. The other benefits more from painting you as the enemy who will stop and nothing to destroy you and must be stopped at all costs.

Reality, it turns out, is badly overrated.

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It can be quite lonely and frustrating having any centrist views, for many of the reasons you mention. Many assumptions made merely on the basis of hearing but one view. The hive mentality is two sides of the same coin, but I don't think anyone is incentivized to change it.

Keep sharing your centrists views.

Independents are the largest political bloc in the country at over 40% of voters. Partisans are not convincing, they are just loud and have representation.

Everyone knows the ways in which both sides are different, we are frustrated by the ways in which they are the same, and that is valid too. Keep sharing, we’re watching. You’re not alone, we are actually more numerous than them.

Independents are technically unaffiliated, but they often vote for the same party in election after election. They may claim to be put off by partisan rhetoric, but it's usually effective at scaring them away from one party or the other. They may choose not to vote, but it's rare that they are truly centrist.

The "swing voter" has been called a "myth" for well over a decade, e.g.

http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~gelman/research/unpublished/sw...

Yes, after being presented with ridiculous choices chosen almost exclusively by partisans.

All states/parties now need to let independents vote in their primary elections, and the choices will smooth out. A couple states do already.

I don't think it's only a matter of partisans being louder, it's that partisanship is easier. Seeing only one side of an issue is always easier, in the same way that empathizing with only one of two (or more) sides of a dispute is much easier.

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