Political Polarization Quotes

“The current backlash of censorship is an alliance between the Moral Majority (the Right) and the politically correct (the Left). This alliance is threatening the freedom of both women and sexual expression. The Right defines the explicit depiction of sex as evil; the Left defines it as violence against women. The result is the same.”
― Wendy McElroy, XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography

“But I really think the - before we continue, it's important to understand that the kind of polarization that we're seeing in the U.S. and the kind of political divisions and the kind of doubts about institutions that we're all faced with - I think it's important to understand that they're happening in other countries right now, too - in other similar democracies. And that leads me to think - you asked about origins and why this is happening now. And that leads me to say that the - of course, it's very normal and natural for Americans to immediately look at our own history - especially our own history of, you know, racial division - as an explanation for everything that happens in our contemporary politics.

But there are some other things happening, too. There is some technological change. There's a change in the nature of the information system. There's a way change in the way that people talk to each other and communicate with each other that has deepened and expanded political division, and it also has helped previously obscure extremist movements become mainstream. And you can now see that in European countries, but you can also see it in South American countries. You can see it in, you know, Asia. I mean, you can - it's not even unique to the West. It's not unique to democracies. And understanding how that's happening, I think, will also help us think about dealing with it.”
― Anne Applebaum

“The majority of people are not fully committed to either the right or the left. Nor either to censorship or to absolute freedom of speech. People are too caught up in the daily struggle for survival to pour a lot of energy into ideology.”
― Wendy McElroy, XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography