2025 and Beyond: Why Reflection Is Key to Reducing Political Toxicity

The start of a new year is a natural time for reflection — for thinking about the past year and how we might approach the future. 

The truth is that a lot of what we send you about our toxic divides via our newsletter is reflective and introspective in nature. We focus a lot on how we think about the people and events happening around us. 

At the same time, many Americans have serious concerns and fears about the future — and that includes many people in this movement of ours. This can lead some people to wonder, “When there are so many real-world things to worry about, how does introspective work help us?” 

Some people may be even pessimistic and think, “These ‘let’s-all-get-along’ kumbaya messages aren’t doing much.”

It’s natural to wonder how “inner work” leads to changes in the real world, so let’s talk about why it matters.

We All Play a Role in Reducing Toxicity — or Increasing It

When so many of us have extremely pessimistic views of our political opponents, that creates demand for more polarized and divisive approaches. Political leaders, activists, and pundits don’t exist in a vacuum. The approaches taken by influential people are affected by the forces and pressures in society — by all of us. 

Put another way: Insulting and divisive behaviors by political leaders will only be successful if there is sufficient support for those behaviors by enough of the public. 

This can help us see that we all play a role in making our culture either more toxic — or less toxic. The interactions that millions of us have across the country, every day, is what helps form the broader political culture.

We may not be as influential as a leader or celebrity or journalist, but all together, we exert a lot of power. 

With Hearts “At Peace,” We Reduce Us-Vs-Them Thinking

The book The Anatomy of Peace (which we highly recommend) talks about the difference between our hearts being “at war” versus “at peace.” If we have contempt for our opponents, that contempt will make itself known; that will be what our opponents focus on, much more than our disagreements about issues. Us-vs-them hostility then leads to more extreme and hardened stances, and less willingness to compromise. 

Many people in our community have told us that understanding their fellow citizens better has reduced their contempt and helped them engage in more productive ways. Those are internal changes that have powerful real-world effects. 

Imagine how such changes happening en masse, for millions of people, might shift our overall political culture. We’d still greatly disagree, of course, but with less us-versus-them thinking we’d find that the things we disagree about would be less polarized and zero-sum in nature. 

Reflection Helps Us Understand Others

Often, when we’re asked to imagine “democracy” we’ll reach for images of people doing things: protesting, voting, organizing, and the like. We don’t tend to imagine someone sitting there thinking. And yet without thinking, action doesn’t mean anything. 

Talisse writes that understanding our fellow citizens’ views is vital. But because few of us have the time to talk with our fellow citizens to understand their views, solitary introspection is important:  

…Citizens must also imagine their way into the outlooks of their fellow citizens; they must endeavor to see things from their points of view. All of this means that citizens must be reflective. Responsible citizenship is partly a matter of engaging in certain kinds of thinking. Democracy happens in the streets, but it also goes on inside of us. 

You Are Already Making a Difference

One way to look at this is: If you’re invested in this cause, you’re already making a difference. You are making a difference every day in the things you do and say — and in the things you don’t do and say.

You are making a difference in the way you move through this world. 

Building a Movement for Change

And of course there are other things we and others in this movement do that go beyond introspective work. With projects like Power Rankings and Citizen Solutions, we aim to inspire citizens, activists, and leaders to push for respectful and empathetic approaches and solutions — without compromising their values. (And we know that can even be a winning strategy for politicians.)

This work starts small, inside each of us. But even small things, en masse, can have big impacts. Ripples can quickly become waves. Big changes do happen in society, sometimes more quickly than we expect.  

As we start this year, let’s commit to improving both our inner world and the outer world. Let’s all commit to creating more ripples — and, when we see the chance, larger waves, too.

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