The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, October 2024
A townsperson woke Carlos Restrepo in the middle of the night telling him to flee. Residents of El Pital wanted to kill Restrepo because of his political leaning. This was 1940s Colombia, the beginning of a decade-long civil war between the Colombian Conservative Party and the Colombian Liberal Party. Colombia’s intense two-party rivalry, exacerbated by its winner-take-all political system, led to partisan enclaves in cities and regions, with areas becoming dominated by either liberals or conservatives. Restrepo’s family kept this account quiet until his granddaughter saw parallels between their story and the current American political climate.
“There weren’t a shared set of common occurrences, common facts, or a common national identity,” depolarization advocate Phelosha Collaros said about her grandfather’s time. Because their fragmented media outlets presented conflicting realities and painted the other side as evil, emotional polarization worsened and mutual toleration began to collapse.
