> If your answer really is that they're just racist and stupid... then I would encourage you to consider whether your opinion is more informed from social media

> If your answer really is that they're just racist and stupid... then I would encourage you to consider whether your opinion is more informed from social media and news than meeting actual people. I mean... Yes? But there's a dynamic that's really hard to get past which is -- 1. I do not actually think that half the country is racist and stupid, but most of my political interactions are unfortunately not with real people, they are with the media, a necessity if you want to stay informed, and if I want to hear the actual thoughts of the leaders of our country, it's not going to give me good impressions. 2. Many of the actual people in my life who are conservative have become MAGA-pilled, and do talk the same way folks do online. I'm a humanist, I empathize deep down with the nature of humans, and the death of small town / manufacturing America, etc. but I will say that I think that over time the lines between online and offline are blurring. Recently spent time with people I've known along time in meat space who talked about how smart and informed they were for knowing the "truth" about vaccines, how stupid the other side was for being in a ideological bubble. How terrible it was that 2 year olds were going to school and coming back Trans. And just in general the kind of anti-lib discourse that you would find on Twitter. Sadly I think this idea that the extreme polarization of our country is limited to online discourse is becoming less and less true over time.