Quick thread. Cut through all Dinesh's mockery (which is not an argument), and he makes my point for me. He exaggerates the national divide and ignores the empirical, well-documented evidence that Americans do have deeply mistaken beliefs about each other. /1
https://twitter.com/DineshDSouza/status/1445758241141444612
He also doubles down on his Tiananmen Square/January 6th analogy (though conceding that not as many people died on 1/6) and decries a government crackdown and "mass censorship," even as he tweets, unironically, to almost two million followers. /2
My core point in my piece was that people like Dinesh use hyperbole to exaggerate divisions, which increases American anxiety and anger. He in fact does precisely that in this clip. But my point that Americans hold mistaken beliefs about each other is documented and true. /3
For example, a Beyond Conflict study found that "Americans incorrectly believe that members of the other party dehumanize, dislike, and disagree with them about twice as much as they actually do." /4 beyondconflictint.org/americas-divid…
To take another example, a More in Common study found that "Overall, Democrats and Republicans imagine almost twice as many of their political opponents as reality hold views they consider 'extreme'". /5 perceptiongap.us
Of course there are serious differences between the parties (as I said in my piece), but there is ALSO a giant media market for exaggeration and fear. Dinesh is a key participant in that market, as he demonstrates in the clip above. Here's my piece: /end frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/a-whiff-of-c…
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