https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/what_political_polarization_looks_like_in_the_brain
We appear to be living in an age of polarities. In no particular order Leave : Remain, Harry & Meghan v HRH, Women v Not All Men, Trans v Anti Trans. Lockdown v No Lockdown. Vaccinators v Anti Vaxers. There's bloody loads of polarities on twitter and you must pick a side or you'll be called a bloody Centrist. You cannot be middle of the road in this day and age. You have to be a wee bit extremist in one direction to have any credibility at all according to social media.
I write as a man who has experienced both the highs and lows of a polarised brain. The mania and the catatonic depression. I offer the premise from having observed the back and fore of outrageous twitter exchanges that maybe 'everybody' is susceptible to the polarised brain. Has this extended period of lockdown encouraged an introspection that taps into black and white thinking? There's another one, BLM v All Lives Matter.
It seems that Leavers lean towards Anti Vaccination and Anti Mask. They also favour All Lives Matter. They are against being told what to do. They have created a monster out of the EU who weren't really bothering anybody and now everyone and everything is a bogey man.
The problem with a polarised brain is that it is prone to paranoia. The Leaving Anti Vaxxers are quite keen on what Remainer Woke Snowflakes would refer to as Conspiracy Theories. The longer you lock a person down, the more they will fantasise about the invisible body oppressing them for example George Soros and the New World Order.
It is ironic that these who oppose the restrictions on our free movement and free speech veer towards the right of the political spectrum. Left & Right is a symbol of the Polarised Brain. Even the leftiest left winger has a wee conservative little gremlin hiding away in there somewhere and the right of right wingers has a wee Citizen Smith shouting power to the people in his inner ear but unfortunately the people they have in mind is the 1%.
An individual's polarised brain can manifest in government and we see that in yesterday's announcement about nuclear warheads and the threat of international terrorism. The UK will come out of lockdown as a paranoid state. They want to crank up the fear factor after letting us know that blood clots can be a side effect of the Astra Zeneca vaccine. They'll lift the lockdown and there is a good chance that they will instigate another one after a third wave. It will be like a sadist's hokey cokey. We wont know whether to put our right leg in or take our left one out. The policing bill will make it 'unappealing' to protest and Johnson's Tories will sell it to us as "It's for your own good because you don't know what you want" ably assisted by Sir Kieth Starmer of the non opposition. As long as the population are compliant they will stockpile the carrots while beating us continuously over the head with sticks.
The Centre Left & Centre Right have more in common than they would admit and the escapologists from reality namely Fascists & Communists share the commonality of a polarised brain.
We better get used to the idea of a future dystopian dictatorship or we better start de-programming the brainwashing that has been occurring in this country for the last forty years, way before this pandemic lockdown ever started. The virus is Neo-Liberalism and Capitalism.
FURTHER READING
https://sharkfishinginwales.blogspot.com/2019/05/forty-years-of-disconnection.html
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