In times of polarization it is easy to forget that “they” versus “us” are concepts that change with scale.
Nation, State, County, City, Neighborhood.
Our political parties encompass different levels of extremes which themselves have competing factions.
Our religions have different sects with individuals who have differing priorities.
While we view other races as monolithic blocs, we make fine distinctions between the different groups of our own race.
When we forget how fluidly we navigate between all these different versions of “us”, we begin to stagnate into a fragmented tribalism. But this is merely an illusion that allows us to assign evil to the others.
Shift the framing slightly, and they are us.