agreed, seems to be sort of global viral thing (maybe it started...

agreed, seems to be sort of global viral thing (maybe it started in America so i'll call it the Washington virUS) to treat every issue as binary.

My guess is it makes life easier in an increasingly complex and fast-paced world ... humans have long evolved into categorising ... and often usefully so ... small furry scurrying things may genuinely be likely to bite us ... so we lump tarantulas in with chihuahuas and avoid them both. More efficient use of our time.

So, these days everyone gets tribal real quick. Makes sense to save at least half your energy and pixels by no longer evaluating the 'other' side.

Sometimes, to amuse myself, i take the contrarian position ... some of my finest work is over on Huffington Post (HuffPost) ... pretty much every article published there has a largely unmoderated 'comments' thread and HuffPost thoughtfully provide a 'thumbs up' and a 'thumbs down' button on each comment.

Comments float up and down roughly depending on net vote. HuffPost itself tends to lean left. Audience is likewise unsurprisingly.

I can predict with a great deal of accuracy which way any new comment will go ...Up <- Leftish content, Rightish content -> down.

My favourite (Ironic content) always goes down real fast (Americans are cautious people)

I suggest same effect is at play here ... some folk (who i affectionately dub 'the flock') have decided to adopt a theme of 'why are we waiting???' ... other right-minded and wise individuals like me tend to form a smaller group (much less a flock, hardly even a breeding pair) who bleat 'why are we so lucky to be here?'

Both groups now find it easy to identify the other and either hit the 'Upvote' button when we recognise a fellow traveller or, in the absence of a 'Downvote' button (HC take note ... we need one) rattle off a quick retort like this one.