The Echo Chamber

Last night I tried to have a civil party only to find that the subject of politics reared its ugly head.

"I take offense, that you are trying to damage the older generation of our country!" Cried one of my party-goers to the other.

"The only thing conservatives care about is keeping themselves rich!" replied the other.

In this case I was witness to what everyone has seen at one point or another, the breakdown of our dialogue from one side to the other. I would like to blame two things, Fox News and MSNBC. Granted as a liberal I was so excited to see MSNBC begin to lean left in its views; I thought it would balance out Fox News coverage. Sadly, they both have led their viewers to such extremes when comparing against the other 'side' that I can't even have a civil party anymore. Fox viewers hear that Obama is transforming the country into Eastern Europe and MSNBC viewers hear that conservatives want to rob America blind. The truth lies much farther from both narratives. While there are bad people on both sides, most of the opposition is genuine at least in the form that it contains sincere beliefs. We would all do well to remember that.