Many may think that the subject matter of a view, whether it be on race, disputing the elections, religion, are all what cause extremism but I find that be misleading. For instance, I can talk about the subject of race without getting upset, whereas someone else may talk about it and get upset. So there's got to be more than just subject matter of a discussion or view that causes anger and extremism.
In my view, a big cause of division and extremism comes from the value and/or meaning that people assign to views. You would think that people would just divide over serious issues like on religion, or race, but I believe that people can assign a high value to just about anything. Politicians are good at assigning value to views, and that's one way they create division. For instance, if you tell people that universal healthcare is a matter of life and death, and those who don't want it are killing people, then people are going to take that view seriously. Those who don't want universal healthcare may be looked at as evil, and the other side may respond in kind and then starts the divisions. Take even gun rights. At one point it (probably after the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting) was seeming that anyone who supported the Second Amendment (or even just supporting assault rifles for civilians) then you were classed as some unreasonable gun toting NRA member that was enabling school shootings. And to think this can be done with any issue from basic to a real hot button issue.
