In the months following the 2016 election, the varying sociopolitical opinions of millions of Americans have been brightly illuminated. The clarity with which these opinions have been articulated has helped to reveal a troubling feature in our thinking — many Americans reject nuance, instead favoring the binary.
Most recently, this black and white thinking has dominated the conversation regarding the removal of Confederate monuments. While groups like Antifa seek absolute destruction and removal of these statues, others rally to keep them where they are. Setting aside any analysis of the validity of the arguments themselves, they represent the black and white, the binary.