I like this article, and I think the relationship between politically-charged discourse and trauma is important not only because it gives us insight into people's behavior, but because this is being deployed strategically
There are many contexts, including education and workplaces, where discussion of politics is discouraged to varying degress, ranging from cultural norms to strict policy. This both results from and in turn exacerbates a tendency to politicize certain topics for tactical reasons
A really stark example I saw in 2021 was a shift in tone about vaccination for COVID-19, where we went from the Trump administration trying to reassure the public that the crisis would be solved by accelerating vaccine development, and then as the rollout of vaccination programs were taken over by the Biden administration, a sudden shift on the right to intense skepticism of vaccination (as well as every disease control measure of any kind), which has resulted in a lot of demands that people be allowed to put e.g. colleagues at work or school at risk because things like vaccination requirements amount to "political acid testing". This whiplash-inducing form of position-switching for political advantage is characteristic of the Republican party (see also their recent strange reversal on funding additional aid at the US southern border, seemingly because their presidential hopeful wants to campaign on this being an ongoing crisis that the current administration is doing nothing about), but they're not the only ones guilty of demanding silence or deference to people's contrarian positions on a vast array of topics in many contexts on the basis that they're "political", often after creating the situation where they are political hot topics themselves
This is not the great counter you think it is and you are not addressing any of the points the person you a responding to took the time to bring up so you are just engaging in low effort flamewar.
There are many contexts, including education and workplaces, where discussion of politics is discouraged to varying degress, ranging from cultural norms to strict policy. This both results from and in turn exacerbates a tendency to politicize certain topics for tactical reasons
A really stark example I saw in 2021 was a shift in tone about vaccination for COVID-19, where we went from the Trump administration trying to reassure the public that the crisis would be solved by accelerating vaccine development, and then as the rollout of vaccination programs were taken over by the Biden administration, a sudden shift on the right to intense skepticism of vaccination (as well as every disease control measure of any kind), which has resulted in a lot of demands that people be allowed to put e.g. colleagues at work or school at risk because things like vaccination requirements amount to "political acid testing". This whiplash-inducing form of position-switching for political advantage is characteristic of the Republican party (see also their recent strange reversal on funding additional aid at the US southern border, seemingly because their presidential hopeful wants to campaign on this being an ongoing crisis that the current administration is doing nothing about), but they're not the only ones guilty of demanding silence or deference to people's contrarian positions on a vast array of topics in many contexts on the basis that they're "political", often after creating the situation where they are political hot topics themselves