the title of today’s N.Y. Times article continues: …….When people have a hole in their life, they often fill it with angry politics
It’s mostly based on a new book by Senator Ben Sasse, with this excerpt:
In the “siloed,” or isolated, worlds of cable television, ideological punditry, campus politics and social media, people find a sense of community in the polarized tribes forming on the left and the right in America. Essentially, people locate their sense of “us” through the contempt peddled about “them” on the other side of the political spectrum.
There is profit to be made here. The “outrage industrial complex” is what I call the industries that accumulate wealth and power by providing this simulacrum of community that people crave — but cannot seem to find in real life.
The following is my comment appended to the article:
........people find a sense of community in the polarized tribes forming on the left and the right in America. Essentially, people locate their sense of “us” through the contempt peddled about “them” on the other side of the political spectrum"
A specific example is a highly popular website, Dailykos, clearly identified as for liberals, specifically supporters of the Democratic Party. I've blogged on this site for over decade, and am accepted, but not always, as I resist being a "true believer."
Recently, I tried to expand my casual friendship with a highly educated supporter of President Trump, which means being open to some of his cogent criticisms of the Democratic platform.
As I accept some of his valid points, I start to feel a deep loss. This was related to the fear that my Dailykos social connections mediated through blogs that sometimes brings the reward of "recommends" could slip away. (a single recommend on a N.Y. Times comment or the mentioned blog, makes all the difference in the world for me)
It's good to learn from this article that 13% of people are suffering from acute loneliness, which can actually be fatal. I know that this is not hyperbole from personal experience.
The concept of Bias Confirmation is much to tepid to describe the existential need to belong, to share values, to be part of a community. If it means either adoring Trump or despising him to feel the solidarity with others whose passion defines their depth of emotion, then so be it.