Why Americans now hate each other more than ever

by John Mac Ghlionn, opinion contributor – 08/15/26 1:00 PM ET
Comments:63

Researchers at the Marquette Law School Poll recently identified a sharp generational decline in trust across the United States. Americans born before 1960 still hold onto a baseline assumption that their neighbors will not rob them, given half a chance. They are the most trusting demographic in the country.

The numbers worsen with each successive generation. The cohort born in the 2000s registers the highest levels of distrust ever recorded by the project. A significant portion of young adults operate under the functional premise that everyone else is a threat.

The situation gets significantly uglier from there. A comprehensive 25-country survey published by Pew Research Center earlier this year found that Americans do not merely distrust one another. Increasingly, they see their fellow citizens as morally bankrupt. American citizens are far more likely to view their fellow countrymen as fundamentally evil than citizens of the other surveyed nations.

Specifically, 53 percent of U.S. adults explicitly stated that the average American has bad morals and ethics. This matters enormously. A society cannot thrive when most people no longer believe their fellow citizens are fundamentally decent.

Morality is the basic, invisible software that prevents human primates from tearing each other apart over grocery store parking spaces. It establishes the rules of engagement. When a population loses faith in that shared software, the entire social contract converts into a hostage situation. Viewing the opposing political or cultural faction as mistaken allows for regular political debate. Viewing them as beyond redemption eliminates the possibility of finding common ground. You do not negotiate with a monster. Instead, you try to destroy it before it destroys you.

This moral panic created an environment of pure, unadulterated contempt. For more than ten years, tracing back to President Trump’s rather surreal 2015 escalator descent, America’s dominant political emotion has evolved from anger into deep, structural disgust.

Relationship expert John Gottman spent decades analyzing why marriages fail, famously identifying contempt as the single greatest predictor of divorce. Gottman described contempt as a toxic mix of hostility and ridicule that involves placing oneself on a higher moral pedestal than the other person. In his research, once a couple begins communicating through eye-rolls and mockery, the relationship is clinically dead.

A nation is nothing more than a vast network of interpersonal relationships. It is a giant marriage between millions of people who never chose to live together but have to share the same house. Right now, the American marriage is in the absolute final stages of a Gottman-style disaster. The partners are sleeping in separate bedrooms, hurling insults, and actively wishing the other would slip on a patch of ice.

The primary reason this trajectory will likely worsen is that the incentives align perfectly with animosity. Media algorithms, political fundraising operations, and cultural gatekeepers generate billions of dollars in revenue by validating this exact contempt. A peaceful, trusting populace is economically useless to the current infrastructure. Modern America has built a business model out of demonizing the person next door. To keep the money flowing, people must stay angry enough to click, donate and hate.

The institutional elite discovered that rage scales infinitely better than unity. A divided populace creates highly predictable voting blocks and captive consumer markets. This calculated division ensures that the industry of outrage remains fully funded and sustained. Every political campaign relies on the explicit premise that the opposition intends to dismantle civilization — either forcing you into communism or fascism, neither of which, if we are being honest, sounds particularly appealing.

The current generation entering adulthood has never experienced a society in which cooperation was the default setting. They grew up watching the adults in the room treat the opposing political party as an existential threat to survival. To see the Marquette data as an anomaly is a mistake. In truth, it is a preview of the next 30 years. The country is locked into a cycle where distrust breeds contempt, contempt destroys relationships, and destroyed relationships ensure that the next generation doubles down on the disdain. The country is settling into a permanent, highly profitable state of mutual loathing. For much of its history, the United States has been united more in name than in reality. Now, it’s a nation divided not only by borders, but by an unbridgeable psychological gulf.

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John Mac Ghlionn is a writer and researcher who explores culture, society and the impact of technology on daily life.

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Comment by Gregory Martin.GMGregory Martin48 min agoWas there a need for this article before trump took office?🫪Not in my lifetime….reply 0 0sharereport
Comment by Richard Windsor.RWRichard Windsor52 min agoRepublicans hate Democrats because they are told to everyday.Democrats hate Republicans because they’ve destroyed America by turning it over to the top .01%The two sides are quite differentreply 0 0sharereport
Comment by Frank X.FXFrank X1 hr agoAmericans hate each other like high school clicks hating one another. Jocks hating the nerds, princesses hating the goths, preps hating the poors. We all sit in the lunch atrium in our corners. High School. Trump just ‘class president’ as typical sided with one of the factions and doesn’t care about the others. Typical high school during lunch time.Thus the problem: there’s no adults in the room.reply 1 0sharereport
Comment by Jack.JaJack1 hr agoGrifters , Reivers and liars.stesling every nickel.Thankfully November is soonreply 1 0sharereport
Comment by dbhsound.dbdbhsound1 hr agoThe State of Hate was created by Trump, but it wouldn’t be resolved if Trump were to suddenly disappear tomorrow. The Trump Taint is endemic in government now and will take a long time to fix. When our long national nightmare of “President Trump” is over, America will have to be de-MAGA-fied.reply 6 0sharereport
Comment by Bob Strayer.BSBob Strayer1 hr agoThe country is divided between anti fascist and oto fascist.reply 2 0sharereport
Comment by jwags31972.jwjwags319722 hrs agoOur Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.John Adamsreply6 replies 2 3sharereport44 older repliesshow older replies
- Reply by jwags31972.jwjwags3197223 min agoReply to Bob StrayerHe would know. He helped write it.reply 0 0sharereport
- Reply by jwags31972.jwjwags3197220 min agoReply to dbhsoundI dont consider any current politicians as moral or religious. Civic duty has been corrupted by power and greed.reply 0 0sharereport
Comment by JamesDuncan.JaJamesDuncan2 hrs agoIndependents flipped 40 points against Trump.Even white non-colleg males flipped 17 points against Trump.Everyone is uniting against Trump.reply2 replies 11 1sharereport
- Reply by Imho.ImImho1 hr agoReply to JamesDuncan🤞🤞🤞 And, more importantly, his enablers come Novemberreply 1 0sharereport
- Reply by Callix C.CCCallix C53 min agoReply to JamesDuncanAgain. They did this the last time in 2020 after the disasterous first term.What I can’t understand is, they promptly forgot everything they hated about him, turned around and voted for him again.If another charismatic takes the stage, they will fall right in line and vote them in again.I’m afraid though, we might be too late to save the day this time. They’ve had a decade to lay the groundwork and two years to implement whatever sneaky plans the heritage foundation has and I wonder if a Democrat will ever win an election again.Read morereply 0 0sharereport
Comment by Aaron Levitt.ALAaron Levitt3 hrs agoBottom line: In the past, leaders of both parties worked, albeit imperfectly, to bring Americans together. Trump pours his energy into splitting us apart: divide and conquer.reply1 reply 12 0sharereport
- Reply by oled.ololed45 min agoReply to Aaron LevittBlind to the antics of Pelosi, Schumer, and Comey and their allies in the press to stop Trump from upsetting the USAID and ‘opened borders’ gravy train, I guess. The venom started with the Obama-ites.reply 0 0sharereport
Comment by rla1000.rlrla10003 hrs agoTrump the Uniter? Please, just go away, Donnie.reply 3 0sharereport