My intention wasnt to say both sides think the same, it's exactly the opposite. It's that neither side thinks the way the other is painted.

While both extreme fringes are being sold as mainstream now, the majority of people are simply more complicated than that. People on the right need to recognize that their party has been taken over, and put aside the greed of short term wins to consider if they really back this ideology. You're instantly branded a RINO and tossed aside if you do, and fear arising from cultlike mob mentality is used to keep people at the fringes.

I understand all of that. The OP was just saying that both sides feel the same about each other. He was not saying that one side is better than the other, or that both sides are the same, they are clearly not the same.

The media demonizes everything it can about the other side while downplaying or denying everything their side has done wrong. Everyone sticks to their 'feed' or 'channel' and so only understands their weaponized story of events. There are teams of professionals spinning each of these stories to the best of their ability. There are extremely complex algorithms pulling people further and further over their side of the boat to maintain enngagement and sell ads.

If they only ever watch 'Fox News' then they'll only hear about the good stuff their party doing and fear mongering over the other party. If they happen to see a counter argument on 'CNN' or something they'll see it as fake/misleading/out of context/false. They'll go into their similar minded social media communities and discuss and rant with a group that they see as everybody, validating their concerns.

This is a media bubble, a worsening bipolar extermist movement driven my massive market forces. We have to acknowledge we are subject to the same media bubble effects as they are, the same market forces are being applied to us. Swap the positions of 'Fox News' and 'CNN' in the above paragraph and reread it.

Until people acknowledge this and learn to engage with their opposition in a productive manner, the political climate in this country will continue to worsen. The politicians and media will never engaged the opposition productively as it is against their interests to do so. This bipolar extremism works too well for improving votes, user engagement, donations, and merch sales. Yet in the end, it is us who they are competing over. De-escalation is the best path forward from this. While that effort is against the flow of the system, we are the only ones who can do it.