On immigration, we often see the worst in each other

Plus: "Why is it our job to reduce toxicity? Why don't our opponents do that?"

Feb 20, 2025

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Republican and Democrat misconceptions: Immigration

Immigration is a divisive issue: it sparks passionate debates and strong emotions. Some people view their opponents’ stances on immigration with much pessimism and disdain.

If we’re going to find creative compromises and solutions, we must see that rational and compassionate people can disagree on this issue.

Learn immigration misconceptions...

News and views

Pro-Trump and anti-Trump Builders messaged us

We wanted to share two emails we received: one from a Trump-opposed person and one from a pro-Trump person. Both thought their political group was too often asked to reduce toxicity while they saw the “other side” as not doing enough. Read their opposing but similar messages:

Read their messages

Reactions to Trump

Since he's taken office, Trump’s actions have fueled controversy. We'd like to share a couple less-heard views on this. As always, we share these views not because they're what we believe, or think you should believe. We share them in case they offer some nuance to highly polarized discussions.

A constitutional crisis? Zachary Karabell is the creator of the newsletter The Edgy Optimist. His goal is to avoid all-too-common pessimism and worst-case framings and instead focus on what might be going right — or at least what might be not as bad as many think. He writes about hyperbole he sees in some responses to Trump’s actions.
A zero-sum presidency? Yascha Mounk argues that Trump approaches disagreement in zero-sum ways, a mindset that can be seen as separate from one’s political stances. Mounk says this aspect is also key to understanding Trump’s appeal.

We’ve seen a lot of thought-provoking and nuanced pieces on Substack recently. If you didn’t know, our newsletter is on Substack. Consider following us there and checking out our recommended newsletters.

Make It A Habit: Consider if your sense of threat is too high

We hear the word polarization a lot. Merriam-Webster even chose it as the 2024 Word of the Year. But that word glosses over a lot of nuance. It’s even possible that using it can add to our divides by making people think we’re more different from each other than we actually are.

Maybe a better word is “overthreat.” This gets at the idea that we’re too scared of each other, which causes us to respond to each other in increasingly hostile and aggressive ways. This is not to say there’s no reason to feel threatened. But by better defining the problem, we might be in a better position to tackle it.

Learn about overthreat

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