Fear is at the heart of our polarization. Rationalizing our fears, based on our interpretations of our experiences, hardens our beliefs. We then use selective information to further confirm our beliefs.

I saw a great example of this recently when a reporter showed Trump supporters a video of Biden supposedly sleeping during an interview. It was actually a manipulated video, and the reported showed them the original. They struggled to change their interpretation of the video, because it was counter to their beliefs. When they finally acknowledged that the video was fake, their response was, “Well, at least it’s funny.” THAT seems irrational.