I feel very pessimistic about America's future. Even if you ignore Trump for a second, you can't ignore the repugnant enviornment that made Trump possible.

I used to be willing to be respectful, to debate with right wingers, present facts in the hopes that a middle ground can be reached.

I am not anymore. I am just angry. There is a certain proportion of our population that is just ... stuck. They have gone so far that there isn't anymore a basic truth - a basic set of facts - that we can build a conversation over. It has become tribal.

I am not sure directly engaging with these people can lead to anything productive anymore.

In a sense, I blame curated social media and search engines. Now more than ever you can let yourself be stuck in a post-factual echo chamber.

How can such large proprotion of Americans be so wilfully ignorant, so aggressive, so hateful, so immune to reason and fact? How did we get here? Why do I find myself viewing anyone who promulgates T_d bullshit with disdain bordering on hatred?