World News

Political Polarization in Conversation

By Leslie Rosoff ‘27 & Katie Liang ‘27 in Spring 2025

The above image is a frightening example of a pervasive issue throughout modern-day politics: dangerous, extreme rhetoric that only serves to divide our nation. 

By design, politics have always been full of tension, but the level and visibility of disrespect and radicalization has shifted over time. In the past, public discourse, especially in democratic settings, tended to maintain a level of decency. Politicians from opposing parties could be fierce rivals in front of the media, but still maintain professional and, on occasion, personal respect outside of the debates. 

Unfortunately, that seems to be a standard of the past. This drastic shift in the way we use language in politics can be attributed, like so many other things, to the rise of social media. Apps like Instagram and X (formally Twitter) amplify polarization, allowing misinformation and inflammatory speech to spread faster than ever before. Moreover, the culture of social media is that spectacle, good or bad, is what gets views, meaning shocking, rageful language is not just tolerated, but rewarded with exposure. This has translated to politics, leading our most important leaders to utilize striking, clickbait phrases, like one of Trump’s personal favorites, “radical left lunatics,” to reach more people, thus affecting more opinions with the potential to garner more support.

The past few years have already made clear that extreme rhetoric can very quickly lead to disaster, as exhibited by the 2022 January 6th Capitol riot, preceded by a speech that almost landed Trump with charges of incitement of violence. However, the charges were dropped, a symptom of a larger problem: our institutions’ inability to civilly regulate language in an age where spreading the word is as simple as clicking ‘post.’

With that in mind, it is our duty as good citizens to follow the age-old adage and to think before we speak. Where is the line between a dark joke and something better left unsaid? When does selfexpression become hate speech? We need to be thinking about the answers to these questions ourselves, as our political leaders certainly don’t seem to be.