We live in a time in which voting for a particular candidate could make friends and family members stop talking to you, sharing a milquetoast opinion could get you fired from your job, and even being suspected of supporting the "wrong" side could cause certain groups of people to try to "cancel" you. It sucks. Surely it hasn't always been like this, right?

My dad loves to talk politics. Even with strangers, or people he just met. People aren't always as willing to continue the conversation, especially younger people. I can only conclude he feels comfortable doing this because he's from a different time, when people knew how to disagree respectfully.

But sometimes I doubt this sentiment that political hostility is a new phenomenon. What about McCarthyism and the Red Scare? It seems like people certainly were not very accepting of certain viewpoints then.

So I guess I'm mostly interested in hearing from those older than me: are politics truly more hateful and hostile now than in the past? And if so, what caused that change?

I don't think it has anything to do with the policies or positions of any particular candidates or parties. Even though people love to compare Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler and Joe Biden to Karl Marx, I don't actually believe that Trump, Biden, Harris, or any present day popular politicians are any more extreme than those of the past. More unconventional, sure. More divisive, sure. But I think the divisiveness comes from perception, not policy. And I think this perception comes at least partly from social media.

This is just a theory, of course. I am not an academic, and I have not done any studies to confirm this. But I think it is undeniable that the advent of social media allows people to lock themselves in an echo chamber, where they only have to expose themselves to like-minded people. People can choose to follow people that they agree with, and unfollow (or block) those that they disagree with. Because of this, people develop a false sense of unanimity. They think that everyone agrees with them, because everything they see aligns with their viewpoint. They forget that they set it up to be that way. And because their phone is constantly throwing affirmation of their beliefs at them, it's a shock when they encounter someone that doesn't share their views. "How could this person possibly disagree with me when everyone else knows that my opinion is the right one?"

Furthermore, social media incentivizes one-sided "gotcha" arguments over anything of actual substance. A tweet that says "This policy is bad because Person X is evil" will get plenty of likes and retweets from people that don't like Person X. A tweet that actually takes a nuanced perspective and breaks down the pros and cons of the policy will get no attention, because it doesn't make either side feel good about themselves.

And I think this has caused mainstream media to shift towards a more attention-grabbing (rather than informative) approach as well, in order to compete with social media. Why would anyone read a nuanced article or watch a reporter give a balanced, factual account of the news when they can go on Twitter instead and read about how everything bad that happens is [politician they don't like]'s fault?

With all of that being said, I do think this phenomenon is more prevalent in big cities than in rural areas. If you live in New York City, for example, it's very easy to cut out anyone that disagrees with you in real life, just like you do on social media. There are 8 million people in New York City; you'll have no problem finding enough people that share your views. In small towns, however, you don't always have that choice. Of all the places I've lived, Wheeling, West Virginia was the closest to what I imagine it was like in my dad's time, when having the "wrong" opinions didn't cause you to be excommunicated.

What do you guys think? For the Europeans, is this phenomenon also present in your country?

It really depends on what people you interact with.

I'm a firm believer that if you want to really know somebody you can't just know them online. I'm in a deep red state but reside where they mostly vote Democrat in the district.

I've met quite a few Trump supporters and contrary to what punditry you'll read online, they're pretty nice people albeit definitely watching Fox News and being influenced by what they're saying.


It doesn't help that when Twitter became X everyone posted their hot takes for engagement, with hot takes just being an absolutely awful opinion on whatever subject matter your talking.


And no matter what part of the spectrum your on, I firmly believe nobody wants that absolute weasel Elon Musk involved in government as he currently is.

Politics have always been taboo topic of discussion, up there right next to asking a woman her age , or asking a man how much his salary is/how much does he make. You are right though, social media and the algorithms they use to recommend content to you have locked people in to less than reputable news sources and created a echo chamber of ignorance. As far as the comparisons of Trump to Hitler, and Trump is undermining the constitution and creating a fascist state , the people who claim this just don't understand the rule of law and what he can do as president via executive orders. For example Trump can't dismantle the department of education only congress can. The democrats really have only themselves to blame for Trump winning they should've held a primary and read the room, Nobody wanted Kamala back in 2019 that should have been a clear enough indicator not to run her again in 2024, not to mention Obama giving all the black men a speech well lecture and then her close affiliation with Biden and being unable to separate herself from him in the eyes of voters.

To be honest the Republicans should be ashamed of running a candidate like Trump and I tend to lean more republican than democrat,but ultimately Trump is business smart , and that doesn't translate well to a presidential candidate because government isn't in the business of making money they are in the business of public assistance and service. And Finally Trump and Elon have way to many conflicts of interest to be holding public office, but same goes for congressmen and senators they shouldn't be allowed to deal in stocks and companies that are largely effected by your voting in Legal matters.

Also Trump is likely to crash both the stock market and the housing market so now is a good time to invest in some stocks since its down about -1,400, and the housing market bubble is soon to crash since every home is now 300,000-700,000 on average and has pretty much priced out this generation of home buyers.

But I think a Democrat will win in 2026 the Republicans don't have any good candidates left unless then run RFK Jr or Senator Kennedy, and the Democrats have potential in Jasmine Crockett but if they run Newsom from California they will lose.