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The Two-Team Fallacy and The Sports Centerization of Politics


Although I discuss politics very little (so far) in public forums, I have long opined to my friends about US politics being incorrectly cast in the framework of “home versus away”, “red versus blue”, and even “good versus evil”.  


Given modern issues of such subtlety and importance, this “2 team” bias ingrained in US citizens all the way back to elementary school sports seems instinctively wrong. It has greatly harmed my confidence in our governance model for over a decade. Considering hundreds of polls now rank partisanship as a key complaint of citizens and reveal all-time lows in Congressional approval ratings… it seems large sections of the populace have arrived at similar conclusions.

I recently came across an article that takes it one step further. It takes an angle of media analysis regarding the “Sports Center-ization” of US politics. When you take an ingrained overly-simplified 2 team cultural paradigm, then pair it with mass media marketing, the results we see today seem even less surprising.

Presented with little additional fanfare or commentary needed, the article can be found here.

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