Jessica Rivera, Gabriela Gonzalez, Jose Arroyo, Sophia Guerra, Jason Warner

3/04/2015

Patricia Roberts-Miller defines polarization as an element of demogoguery with the statement,  "Demagogues polarize a complicated (and often frightening) situation by presenting only two options: their policy, and some obviously stupid, impractical, or shameful one." According to Miller she believes polarization is an issue, because it only represents two polar opposite sides of the spectrum, showing a sort of black and white argument. To support her definition of polarization, and that polarization is a problem, she claims that "while this can be a fairly harmless tendency, social psychologists have described how this kind of thinking contributes to stereotyping and racism."  Within LaPierre's speech he utilizes Miller's definition of polarization several times, for example, "the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Would you rather have your 911 call bring a good guy with a gun from a mile away... or a minute away?"