#readwise # 285 - American Division ![rw-book-cover](https://assets.samharris.org/images/rss/making-sense-logo.png) ## Metadata - Author: [[Making Sense with Sam Harris - Subscriber Content]] and [[David French]] - Full Title: 285 - American Division - URL: https://www.airr.io/episode/62b66522abd8be000ef2a4f1 ## Blurb In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with David French about **forces that are pulling American society apart**. They discuss David’s experience as a JAG officer in Iraq, his experience of harassment for coming out against Trump, the way real grievances drive political derangement, the illiberalism on both the Left and the Right, the role of prophecy in Evangelical support for Trump, honor culture, the response to Hunter Biden’s laptop, the January 6th hearings, the personality cult of Trumpism, federalism, geographic sorting, group polarization, cultural divisions in sports and entertainment, the gun rights movement, the ethics of gun ownership, whether Trump will be prosecuted, the 2024 Presidential campaign, the dangers of online activism, and other topics. **David French** is a senior editor at The Dispatch and a contributing writer for The Atlantic. A graduate of Harvard Law School, David was previously a senior writer for National Review and a columnist for Time. He is a former constitutional litigator and a past president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. David is a **New York Times bestselling author, and his most recent book, Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation**, was released last September. David is a former major in the United States Army Reserve and is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, where he was awarded the Bronze Star. ## Highlights SH: **The fact that we have to pay really ==any significant attention at all to politics is just totally odious opportunity cost==. A sign of a society working is how little time people have to spend sweating politics** and we're just not in that world. ^e0vsk1 --- DF: **==The more salient politics is to your life the less healthy the culture is==, I think is a pretty good basic formula and especially when you overlay that with the incredible distrust in institutions even outside of politics, it means more people are turning to politics to control institutions and that's incredibly dangerous.** ([Time 1:50:32](https://www.airr.io/quote/62dc033f9280c589eadc6362))