Polarization is a natural response to being attracted to similar (positive) things and repulsed by different (strange), which can have benefits and consequences.

There are several types of polarization that affect groups in the political realm, in particular affective, ideological, political and perceptual.

America is evidencing 3 concerning polarization trends: (1) escalating polarization for 50-plus years, (2) acute levels of affective polarization and (3), a collapse and over-simplification of attitudes across the top 10 most divisive issues within parties.

Despite what we are told, there are no single sovereign causes that account for these trends – rather it is how the different facets coalesce into vicious cycles, cyclones and superstorms.

This can result in change-resistant forms of pathological polarization.

These are what are known as cloud problems, which differ fundamentally from most (clock) problems we face in our lives.

Humans hate highly complex problems – we recoil from them by collapsing our experience, understanding and reactions to them – which only exacerbate these problems.

When cloud-like problems collapse, they can form attractors.