It this sbrings up a great question we have. You know, we've had many guests on the podcast talk about political polarization. We've probably had ten now that, if theyve talked about it kind of in depth,

i

pretty much all of them come up with the answer. It's social media, that is the answer. Kind of, we get back, i

what's

your thought oln that? What is driving this kind of a political polarization we have? And does the answer have to do with, like, not giving people dignity, or something like that? There's

a bunch of stuff. Om, what's not driving it, by the way, is a emigration that is just not a factor behind political port in fact, that's going, that's going to reduce political polarization. Because when a whole bunch of conservative ispaning people start voting republican, it, it's just going to blow everybody's, you know, expectations out of the water, and they're going to go o. And then, like, their narratives are goingto go out the window. But, m so it's not, it's not emigration. It is part of, it's the internet. You know, twitter especially. I would say that that twitters worse than facebook, because facebook has replaced the old chain mals and drudge report ad all that crap. But then twitters created something new, which is dunk mobs, just warring dunk mobs all day. And we've, we've taken all the journalists and politicians in america and thought leaders, and trapped them in a room with dunking ten agers all day. And that's who they hear all day, is just these ass hole like teen agers just, you know, and and just unhappy people, just screaming and ranting like cyra row or some she all day is what they're bing exposed to. Anyway, twitters terrible. And we can do a whole another pod guest about that. A second factor is the big sort u. So if you read that, that a book, it's about how basely, um liberals were like, well, we don't want to live in a, you know, small, podunk town where everybody's conservative, so we're goin to move to a college town or a coastal city, right? And then you can see the big sort within texas, people move to austin, like, liberals move to austin. That's where we got the culture of, like, slacker and richard linklater, movies and snuff. That was um. And like, eighties, nineties, austin is where we got that um. And then in the whole country, you know, people would move to san francisco, to new york, to san diego, to portlando, wherever, right to the coast, boston, d c. And so then um, and, and then we sorted ourselves. Now, all the liberals are really mad, becauset in the way we divide up electoral votes and in districts and all the stuff, really down weights urban agglomerations and cities in terms of the political power they get. And so they're really mad. But that's what they got, because the they moved away thy they want to still be able to to control the government while physically removing themselves from the red necks that they didn't like grown up with. Um. And so that's, that's a problem, because our system's not set up to do that, um. But also it means that everyone can sit there in their own town and imagine that people far away are the bad guys, you know, like you can sit in san francisco and imagine that the world would be great if it weren't just for these republicans. And then locally, what are you doing your you're a progressive quobut you're voting to blockhousing. You're a republican. You're voting democrat, but you're a republican. You don't want poor people living next you. That's, you know, you don't especially want to pay more taxes, stuff like that. Maybe you vote to band drinking straws or some useless craft like that. But you are functionally republican. And yet you're sitting there telling yourself all day that it's, it's those people in the red states that are, you know, that are ruining this country. It's like, it's, you knowand if california ever ever secceeded, you'd get conservatives and liberals, republicans and democrats dividing up very quickly, right? It's only because it's part of this greater unit that all the californians can imagine, whil i'm a good progressive, and if if this nation were just california, it would be so much better. Wia, no, it would be the same. You'd vote. I mean, there would be a few differences, like gun lws, mostly it wuld be the same. Um and, oh, but people don't realize that. So this sort, this big sort, and the treating of political groups like sports teams that you cheer for and that you get, like, the only time i've ever seen hatred similar to the hatred of republicans and democrats in this country is michigan versus ohio state. That's the only thing i've seen that approaches it. And it's the same thing. It's like, you know, people are just watching these elections like sports teams. And and a few people realizing, like, actuallyt you know, that one party wins the election or another party, there's, sometimes there's consequences, and sometimes there's not consequences.