Hutch claims that citizens are increasingly viewing those with different political opinions as unworthy of existence.

“This is the first time in this country that I've ever seen people from the top to the bottom talk about people that don't agree with them as if they shouldn't exist because we disagree.”

Polarization can be beneficial to collective intelligence when it increases the diversity of opinions within a group, provided there is no political violence.

“The collective mind of a divided crowd turns out to be wiser than that of a united one. And this means that there are certain aspects of opinion polarization that might not be as bad as we think.”