Steven Pinker

Is it?

It means like mean and nasty, like a viper.

So when we're siloed into these different camps like this,

it becomes very easy then to point fingers and say, that's your enemy, that's your enemy, that's your enemy.

And then it's okay to be mean and nasty towards those people.

And it seems like that's exactly where we are.

Nazi Germany took that all the way through.

I wasn't even thinking along those lines, but absolutely, yes, that's how it went down.

But norms of civility, things you just don't say.

You might disagree with someone, you might even not think highly of them, but you don't insult them to their face.

I mean, you do in the playground, but there was a norm in politics, in corporations, in the media, that you pretend that you like them even if you don't.

And that's...

Those are some of the norms that are shattered.

You don't lie blatantly.

Now, everyone lies somewhat.

I'll probably tell two lies a day.

But you don't blatantly lie.

You don't show a contempt for the truth.

You at least try to pretend that you're honest.

That is a very politic.