Dialog across difference #18: Bipolarization disorder

 According to the National Institute of Mental Health: 
"Bipolar disorder (formerly called manic-depressive illness or manic depression) is a mental illness that causes unusual shifts in a person’s mood, energy, activity levels, and concentration."

Yeah. I think we have something far more pervasive and, frankly, serious in our country than just shifts in mood, unless you count rioting and killing security personnel at the nation's capitol building as just an unusual shift in people's mood. I call it our national bipolarization disorder.

This makes those who suffer from it determined to make others suffer. 
Perhaps it will be local election officials, who report unprecedented levels of death threats and harassment from Trump MAGA followers.

It might also manifest as credible threats against any prosecutor, judge, jury member, or court staffer who has the temerity to work on any case that might indicate that Donald Trump is not above the law of the land.

It can come from intimidation, even by armed MAGA followers.

It has even presented as dire threats, for goshsakes, against librarians, some of the most generally appreciated members of our society, when they are found to permit certain books to be held in their library collection, books that might mention or discuss views that MAGA followers don't like.

Of course it's also found in the more quotidian affairs of our daily lives--at work, in the neighborhoods, and in our families. Old friends no longer speak to each other. Workplaces have become hostile environments. Putting the "wrong" political signage in your yard might get your windows busted--both car and home.

Time to fix this, right? How?

Back at the National Institute of Mental Health, the treatment of bipolar disorder is described: 
"Treatment can help many people, including those with the most severe forms of bipolar disorder. An effective treatment plan usually includes a combination of medication and psychotherapy, also called talk therapy."

Medication is out of our layperson's purview. But talk therapy might help. Who is working on it?

Braver Angels is.

They describe themselves, in part, as "the nation's largest grassroots organization uniting red and blue Americans in a working alliance to depolarize America."

You can find a chapter and see if you like their approach. What if they only saved one librarian from getting attacked? What if they only convinced a small handful of MAGA followers to stop threats?

Or what if they help you and your friend engage in dialog across difference without any dehumanization?

Might be one way to treat our national bipolarization disorder.