The Spanish political debate increasingly resembles sports talk shows or social chronicles. And you, who are you with? With the squatters or the large property holders? What an absurd dilemma! But if we reach the maximum synthesis of electoral offers, as presented to us on social media, it seems we are driven to this kind of Manichaeism. And we cannot afford it: We have two enormous challenges ahead, which are housing and immigration. Both are intimately related, and have to do with the Problem with a capital P, which is the impoverishment of the middle and lower classes, and the bankruptcy of public services. It is a question of economic model, but for the parties, the pundits, and the influencers it is easier and more comfortable to reduce it to a cultural issue, of values. Equality/freedom. Order/disorder. Identity/diversity. Broncano/Motos. And here at home, too, Spain/Catalonia. Or Hispanicity/Catalanicity. Or Islam/Orriols.

It is undeniable that polarization is a part of our sociopolitical reality. Polarization describes the existence of politically opposed positions. In recent times, we have seen how certain ideological and media bubbles, fueled by exclusionary narratives that were once laughable in our communities, have crossed the boundaries of the digital world to invade our neighborhoods, where they find refuge among people and social environments disillusioned by the lack of political solutions to their everyday problems. Indeed, in the arena of political disputes, there have always been proactive arguments, guaranteeing rights, against which reactionary antitheses emerge, directed against equality and coexistence. However, if polarization is inherent to political discussion, what is new about the current situation of polarization?

I bitterly confess that I have seen lives torn apart by fanaticism, by criminal greed, by the violent defense of dogmas that had been deconstructed, by accidents that were not accidents but the consequence of recklessness, by loneliness or poverty, by climate catastrophes. Bad politics has consequences, and they are not good.

It's very unlikely you'll win the Grossa lottery, but it's very likely you'll have a political argument on Christmas Eve. Specifically, you have a 20% chance of having a "heated" political discussion, according to the [unclear - possibly "lottery" or "political lottery"].Polarization Atlas 2025 From the organization More in Common. The landscape of social division that emerges from this and other research is worrying. One in four people in the country has felt "attacked or strongly criticized" for expressing their opinions in public.