All Intensive Purposes

I don't think you need to get your assumptions checked.

After all, these two groups were each composed of like-minded individuals. So I'm sure the "deliberations" were in each case more like a revival meeting than a serious effort to understand opposing views. I'll check with a retired psychology prof I know to confirm, but I recall some interesting research about group dynamics that showed similar results.

What it suggests for the future of intelligent political discourse, of course, is grim: as many cities and counties are becoming more uniformly liberal or conservative, any discussions between neighbors about politics are more likely to harden existing political views.

Perhaps we can hope that these results
 

You're right -- I misread it, and thought it suggested that when residents of Boulder and Colorado Springs were forced to talk to each other, they became more extreme.
 

What happens when the foxes have to talk to the hedgehogs?
 

the intolerance and hatefule prejudic of the left used to surprise, but now i just chalk it up to the DU-ification of the once proud Democratic party. My parents were Detroit democrats back in the day and were at first aghast at my politics but now realize that the Democrat party was hijacked by extremists and left us. Much more to regret.
 

That study refers just as much to the right. From either side, the other side looks extreme.
 

the liberals are the ones who claim to be progressive, open minded tolerant and diverse loving souls. Their hypocrasy is rank. Open your eyes and admit it Ty! this isn't LT, you don't have save face among your like-minded pals.
 

The conservatives I know likewise claim to be progressive, open-minded, tolerant, and diversity-loving. You should find a different crowd of conservatives to hang with.

And I think that study found that the Boulder residents who participants were even more progressive, open-minded, tolerant, and diversity-loving after they had spent time deliberating with each other.
 

you think that people who hate the President and the 63 million people who voted for him are progressive, open-minded, tolerant, and diversity-loving? You are more far gone than Spank said so you were. What happened to cause this sickness?
 

The problem with the foxes talking to the hedgehogs is that by definition they only have one thing to discuss.

Idle question: is hypocrasy a synonym of apostasy?
 

To respond to Hank's remarks, I think it highly unlikely that any member of a political group sees his group as anything other than rational, inclusive, and principled. And undoubtedly he is convinced that the converse is equally true.
 

You never have met Spank?
 

I may have met Spank, but I don't know him by that name.
 

I think polarization and the dwindling of many parties to just two is also what political theorists say is the natural tendency of first-past-the-post voting. I haven't looked into the experiment discussed though. My prejudice would be that since it's social science, it's poorly designed and over-interpreted. One thing that comes to mind is that the experimental subjects are hardly isolated from the public/media discourse going on outside the laboratory. If they haven't had to express their political predilections to someone who leans another way, they're liable to reach for what they heard the guy on Fox say. Like I said, though, I didn't read up on the experiment.