Well said, and the obvious warning to people who blindly dismiss criticism of Trump is important.

But (as I’m not an American), this piece hit me in a more general way about our society and the exchange of ideas. I’m not going to say things are “worse” now, because preferring to be insulated in an “echo chamber” is nothing new. I just feel it’s easier to “dig in”, due to social media and surround yourself with like-minded people that can reinforce your own perspectives instead of pursuing any form of introspection and evaluation.

This is not to say that communicating with like-minded people is a bad thing, but when it becomes an “us vs them” instead of “right vs wrong” (or to avoid the subjective nature of that: “true vs false”), it becomes dangerous and polarizing. And to be entirely honest, I think we’re seeing that manifest itself in this US election — at least that’s how it appears from afar. The “left” pushes further left, and the “right” pushes farther right. Criticism from either side only entrenches the other side further into their own ideology, because instead of considering the critique, we tend to insulate ourselves and have our “in group” reaffirm our original perspective and dismiss the (at times) valid criticism. This happens to all sides across the political spectrum (myself included). But it’s important, once in a while, to detach ourselves from the safety of our “in group” and independently challenge and evaluate our values, perspectives and beliefs.