Polarización política: "La izquierda es derecha" | Oswaldo Casares | TEDxCalzadaDeLosHéroes

You tell me.

[Music]

[People clapping]

United - wait, ready.

"United we win, divided we fall",

It was a phrase that was commonly used
during World War II,

it was used by the Allies

when they decided to
take arms against the Axis

which was composed by the Italians,

the Germans, the Japanese,

and years later we would have
our revenge against them

when we decided to put ketchup on pizza,

when we decided to put creme cheese on sushi,

and perfected the german bratwurst

when we turned it into "salchipulpos".

You're welcome, world, you're welcome.

"United we win, divided we fall"
was a phrase used

to create union and
understanding in the world,

because when the world unites

to do amazing things, it turns out great.

Just like Fridays For Future.

This organization which is
warning us about this problem

we have, which is global warming.

Or what about when the Mexican
national football team plays

we all put on our shirts,
we literally put on our shirts

or harder cases,

when we decided to break
the Guinness record

of people dancing Thriller.

Again, by Mexicans,
you're welcome, world, again.

But there is something which
unites us more and that's hatred.

We love hating, have you noticed?

We're always looking for new ways to hate,

be it the ending of Game of Thrones,

or you're Luis Miguel's father
and you did a lot of harm to your son,

a classic,

or you didn't tell your siblings
where the corpse of your father is.

It could happen to anyone.

And I want to introduce you
to my friend, the accordion

because I don't know everything.
Actually, I do,

but there are words that are difficult

because I would say we love hating.

And in Mexico,

you either like soccer
or you go for America.

there's no inbetween.

But really people get so fired up

and they're always attacking poor America

well, I really don't care about that

The stadiums get packed,
not to see your team win

but to see America lose.

We hate so much

- and this is one of the topics
I want to talk about today

the virtue of the mighty
American eagles, just kidding

It's not true, it's not true.

I'm here to talk about polarization,

political polarization

Alright,

By definition this is polarization:

extreme positions in ideologies.

But hey, don't worry

a lot of people must be
getting scared and thinking

that I'm going to behave
like a Jehova's Witness

Knock on their door, tell them
what to think and what not

and the PAN already exists,
I'm not interested in doing that too

but sit tight because at the end
there will be picture of kittens

wearing human glasses, not yet though

There are two types of polarization

élite and mass

the élite one refers
to the people's ideals

sorry, to those of the political parties

and the mass one refers
to the people's ideals.

Right now we're experiencing a bizarre

combination of the two

because the political parties,
I don't know if you noticed,

are stealing the people's ideals
in order to get voted.

And this isn't even the worst,
further on I'm going to tell you

what the worst in all of this is.

Political polarization comes
from a logical fallacy

known as a "false dilemma"

in which you a situation occurs

and only two options are introduced

as though they are the only available ones

leaving out a third or a fourth option

which could solve the problem

but we ignore them

and usually these two options are extreme.

I'm going to make a very clear example:

let's say I go to a restaurant
and I ask what's on the menu

and they say: There's two things
there's this lettuce

which was grown by Triqui children

and it's going to give you diarrhea, ok?

Or we have these hamburgers
we call artery-blockers

that are so rich, so delicious

yes, they take away two years
off your life expectancy

but who wants to live to 80 anyway?

And that's what this is all about

because political polarization
is like the Jonah Hill of politics

the man knows no middle ground.

But let's make some examples

let's see what is happening in the world

let's examine the clearest
example there is

the United States.

In the Unites States
there are two political parties:

the democrats and the republicans

and we live in a time when
Obama with the democrats

was in charge and he did very well

however, the republicans got their revenge

and this man won.

You know,

Donald Trump won by
polarizing his country

he promised to erase absolutely
everything that Obama had done

and he did that while riding an eagle

waving an American flag
with a rifle in his hand

and exploding Mount Rushmore.

This picture is real

don't ask me how I got it

it's a real picture,
in case you were wondering, yes

The United States did a 180° turn

in its politics.

And if you know someone who says

they turned their life around by 360°

this person is right

because they were stupid,
they had a complete turn around

they reached a point where
they could have been smart

and then went back to being stupid

because that doesn't happen.

This joke was stolen from me
by a damn fucking pacheco

thanks Milton, don't worry.

Let's examine other cases,
the case of Brazil

Brazil, hey

con Lula da Silva

who was a leftist president

and what do you know
it didn't work very well

therefore, that they went to
the extreme with Bolsonaro

Bolsonaro, I'm gonna show like this

like the "Bronco" is dancing samba

it's a perfect example, let me tell you.

Let's move on to the UK

UK

My god, UK

the leader of the conservative party

and person who left the car window open

Boris Johnson
this person

divided his country by saying

"I want the UK to exit the EU"

and this person is the Prime Minister.

These things are actually
happening in the world.

What about Mexico?

You know what Mexico is like, right?
You know

I don't need to explain how things

work around here.

But something I would
really like to tell you

is that everyone is extreme

this hasn't been clear to us

everyone is extreme

and we don't understand that
any extreme position

is dangerous

except him!

Except that, they're all dangerous.

And here comes my first question:

No really, what's up with
Boris Johnson's hair?

It looks like they squeezed an orange

and left it like that, that could be it.

My real question is:

What is the real danger
of political polarization?

Let's not forget that we're talking about

élite polarization and mass polarization

we said that they're gaining weight

they're conquering people
to conquer votes.

but that's not the big issue

I'm breathing heavily
because it gives me courage.

Because we're split
into two groups, people

they're splitting us into two groups

and we're not even noticing.

because they are obstinate in this

they want to make us believe that
you're either with one or with the other

so we don't understand what's real.

You are beginning to understand
what the point is now, huh?

The worst offender is Twitter.

It's Twitter.

I don't know if you've
ever been on Twitter

You could put anything on Twitter

"Tangerines are delicious."

Doesn't matter!

Someone is going to show up to tell you

"AH, you think tangerines are delicious?
Mussolini loved tangerines.

Do you like that, you damn fascist?"

This is where we're at.

It happened to me.