We love to discuss partisan divides, but we’re all about 93% similar in goals

I think I had heard of this Freudian term before, but I just saw it mentioned again in a Mark Manson newsletter.

To frame this up, there’s a study referenced that aims to find the similarities between people, which is very different than how America and the world feel these days, when everything is about difference. The study was large (86,000+ people) and international, and ultimately, here’s your takeaway:

The researchers then cross-analyzed the data in every way they could to determine which groups of people around the world are the most similar and dissimilar. In all, they ran over 168,000 comparisons and found that, on average, people’s values were 93.3% the same. Of all of the comparisons, only 0.66% of them produced results where populations were more dissimilar in their values than they were similar.

So, basically we’re 93% similar in what we want from life, our value structure, etc. But it feels, every day, like the other 7% is driving everything.

So is this about media? Social media?

It’s about lots of things. The way media is now — which is less journalism and more cross-aisle screaming and dog-whistling — certainly contributes. The way social media is, which is basically…