[adhesive_wombat]

I was listening to a podcast recently where a left-wing host had a right-wing guest. The guest said it was strange that in the right there are so many subgroups that are all infighting and disparate, but the left sees them as a monolithic whole. And the host said that they was very funny, because his impression is that broadly opposite: the left is fractured and the right, despite the cliques and subgroups, generally sticks together. Which is what has been phrased as "the right falls in line, the left falls in love".

So it seems that everyone (or at least many) have an inherent bias to view the "other" as much less nuanced then they are themselves. The thought that a left-winger might oppose Pfizer in some ways while supporting the vaccine[1] is as unexpected as a left-winger opposing Obama's drone policies to someone who doesn't see the detail of the other side.

And the same goes in reverse, I hasten to add. And the same goes for every other A Vs B situation: the other side are all humans too and humans are complicated.

[1]: how is this even a left-right thing?

[autoexec]

I don't think many on the left would be surprised that there are factions within the right, There is a view that the right won't hold themselves accountable though which I don't think is unfair.

The right can't view the left as entirely monolithic either. They get a lot of mileage out of phrases like "The left eats their own" and "Democratic civil war" which, again, not unfair.

I think it's just easier to demonize a caricature so that's what ends up in heavily repeated talking points which then get regurgitated even when they're demonstrably false or ridiculous.