It is the internet that is tribalizing us.We used

[applegrove]

Last edited Mon Feb 6, 2017, 03:12 AM - Edit history (1)

to be larger groups and intermingled. Now we only talk to people with the exact views we have. The nuttiest can find like minds to inspire them online. Did not see that coming. Did not see the internet as a force to keep us apart.

As we find connection to those on the Internet we are pulled apart from the places we called home.

[Horse with no Name]

1. Interesting I had the same conversation with someone else about this today

[Initech]

2. Bill Maher had a New Rule about this a while back.

He said that we have nothing in common anymore because there's too much out there. And he's right.

[applegrove]

7. Yup. There is so much choice. Bad choises too.

[Initech]

11. I'm still floored that a lunatic fringe conspiracy theorist is getting WHPC credentials.

The guy who thinks that Hillary Clinton was running a child sex ring and that a massacre of children didn't happen is now getting ascended to the highest level of journalism. Fuck.

[milestogo]

3. Well its pretty hostile out there.

I used to post on an ABC news message board. The nastiness was unbelievable. DU can get pretty bad, but nothing compared to being out in the general public.

[Warpy]

4. I see it more as a function of right wing talk radio

A lot of people who were disengaged and affably apolitical got radicalized by it and became dinner table blowhards.

Before then, people mostly respected the sex, politics and religion taboos in polite company. Oh, we knew Archie Bunker was all around us but as long as he kept his mouth shut at the dinner table, we could be civil, sometimes even friendly as we brought over a home cooked dinner when his wife was out of town because he'd shoveled our walk last winter.

This country was ruined by propaganda. The net has made it easier to connect with like minded people who either accept it or reject it and has made it far easier for those of us who are introverts.

[applegrove]

6. Oh that too. For sure the GOP and right

hate groups have unlimited money to publish fake news. But someone is listening to the radio.

[Warpy]

9. In much of the country, it's Christian ranters, hillbilly music

and right wing talk radio. There's not a lot of diversity in much of flyover country unless you can pick up an NPR station and even some of those fail to provide much of an alternative.

[dontmatta]

19. such acceptance you show.

Those evil hillbillies and their damn music and those funky Christians with their religious views. You, sadly, are a bigot. Funny shit.

[drmeow]

16. Reagan started it with

the gutting of the Fairness Doctrine. Congress then fast tracked Murdoch's citizenship so that he could start building his media empire. Talk radio started us down this path and the internet made it easier. Being able to be anonymous brought the true deplorables out.

[Warpy]

18. Congress also passed 3 Fairness Doctrine bills

Reagan vetoed all 3 and Congress couldn't override his veto.

But yeah, that opened the field for solid propaganda on AM radio. Nothing else had a chance.

[alittlelark]

5. I wish I could rec this 1000 times.....

[riderinthestorm]

8. Agreed 100%. I post on 3 boards regularly to keep tribalism at bay for me personally

But I find my RL local enviro group and immigration rights group are where I get the most satisfying "mix" of people who cross all party lines.

I love the diversity.

[msongs]

10. alternatively some people are trapped in right wing hell holes and can now

find escape, especially young gay and lesbian people.

[applegrove]

13. That is true. The Internet I guess increases the good and the bad.

[Amaryllis]

12. NOt just the internet. Also cable news.

[VOX]

14. Yes! The 'net is the wellspring of alternative facts, like "Hitler was a liberal."

Or, another RW vintage chestnut: "America is a republic, not a democracy."

The lack of a common information "watering hole" gave the lunatic-right a voice it never had previously.

[former9thward]

15. The posts to your OP confirm your OP without knowing it.

[hunter]

17. Not me. I've always been an iconoclastic blowhard.

[marlakay]

20. That is why it's important to find non

Partisan groups on the internet and mingle with those people daily.

I joined a group for losing a few pounds, eating healthy and exercising. Started a month ago. We don't talk politics. Every day we encourage each other, are nice to each other. Talk about hobbies, kids, cooking.

I know many of them are republicans but it makes no difference.

The more we live in our own internet bubble the more isolated and unable to get below to the human side of our fellow human beings on this planet.

[diva77]

21. And the town square has been replaced by corporate malls