Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
America is becoming increasingly polarised and we have two of the most unlikable candidates for President in a long time. The news doesn't help though, it's very hysterical. Although I suspect the internet is more to blame for the current feeling as people retreat more and more into confirmation bias and bubbles.
Whole books and studies could probably be done on this. Anyone who claims they can explain it away easily is probably lying. I don't think it's too dissimilar to Brexit in some respects, the divide in society, but it's not as nasty here.
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I think the media is to blame for quite a lot of this because they increasingly seem willing to report/propagate all sorts of nonsense, the extent to which they do this being linked, to a greater or lesser extent, to those paying the bills. Once news is out there it's easily distorted, spreads like wildfire across the internet and is impossible to stop. There are those suffering with terminal confirmation bias who'll lap up what they want to hear and spread the word but there are many more, I believe, who can have their views changed on the basis of anything ranging from blatant lies to slight exaggerations if they're exposed to enough of them.
Where are we heading with all of this I wonder? I think this is only going to get worse with elections, referenda etc. being increasingly influenced, delayed and undermined by different factions and vested interests beyond the control of any govt. which doesn't choose to operate like N. Korea. Our freedoms might just be catching up with us and ultimately result in us losing some of them because that's the only way things can function effectively...
