Toxic Divisiveness: The Pandemic of Our Time

Photo by Yohann Libot

“I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites” (Romans 16:17–18 NIV).

Have you become acutely suspicious that significant groups of people are harboring selfish, antisocial, and/or otherwise harmful ideas, and do you feel morally superior to them?

Have you become driven to expose or silence members of these groups when they say things you do not like?

Are you supremely confident in your own opinion, find those who disagree to be defective in some way, and feel compelled to make your stance public?

Well, it’s very possible that you are suffering from a virus called “toxic divisiveness.” Toxic divisiveness is a burgeoning pandemic affecting the western world, especially America, in the last few years. It seems to typically affect people involved in politics, academia, media, or professional sports & entertainment.

However, it can transmit fairly easily to others as well. Many Christians have caught it and have now become themselves super spreaders of the virus.   

What marks out toxic divisiveness from either expressing unpopular convictions or having good-natured disagreements, is the desire to ridicule and vilify the other side, painting them as morally or intellectually deficient. The disease spreads as infected persons garner increasing attention for their divisive speech, as well as when hearers of it are encouraged to become similarly divisive.

A number of those strongly affected can spread the disease especially well through a variety of means, including sharp (and sometimes sophisticated) rhetoric, caricaturizing opposing points of views, appealing to authority, promising social approval for agreement, shaming those who refuse to concede, and even launching threats toward the unpersuaded.

It is quite the contagion.

The virus seems to enter through the ears, thus rendering masks useless. From there it attacks the brain. The consequences of the virus can be devastating not only to individuals who have it but also to those who merely have been exposed.

But the good news is that curbing the spread does not require a novel vaccine. Rather, a very safe and effective means to properly deal with the virus has been available for centuries. Once toxic divisiveness is detected, one just needs to keep away from it. This measure can be thought of as an aggressive form of social distancing.

Avoiding infected persons doesn’t mean being passively hateful or uncivil toward them (warning: such reactions may indicate that you yourself have already been infected). Rather, it often means simply not taking the divisive things they say with any degree of seriousness—that is, ignoring them when they manifest symptoms. In some sense, we need to recognize that it’s the virus doing the speaking.  

Toxic divisiveness can still wreak havoc even when following the protocols for controlling it. Nevertheless, this first line of defense should be actively pursued. Indeed, if enough people catch on, we might be able to practically do away with it altogether. So let’s do our part in defeating the virus. Don’t wait, keep away from a toxically divisive person today!