It is easy to live in a bubble in this country in this time. The hard part is leaving your ideological cocoon and engaging with those who don't share your beliefs.
When I lived on Long Island nearly 20 years ago, I had an acquaintance. We had daughters who were in the same grade and who became friends. They played together and I met Tony many times when either dropping the daughter off or picking her up. He and his wife are very good people and their evangelical fervor did not seem too radical at the time.
Fast forward to 2020. Tony is still a facebook friend, but now he copies conspiracy sites vilifying democrats and is a member of LIFT (Long Islanders for Trump). I'm sure Tony and his wife would never choose tRump as a friend. He is pretty much the opposite of everything they believe in and stand for. If The Donald tried to join their church as a private citizen, I'm sure they would vote against it. But, having lived in the Faux News bubble these many years, they only receive sanitized information about tRump and conspiracy theories about democrats.
I have disagreed with several of his posts and was immediately flamed by many of his friends. I am a moron with no morals, apparently. Tony has not participated in this abuse, to his credit. But, he lives in this bubble of hate for all things to do with the democratic party. By the way, he is a retired union man whose standard of living can be traced back to democratic party policies. Many, if not most of his friends are of a similar background. Unless and until we pop these bubbles and get to know one another as people, the demonization of the other will continue.
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