You and Scott Adams probably have had similar experiences. The
Wired blog has an article/interview
with him on to promote his latest book, and it starts off:
After expressing support for Donald
Trump in 2016, Dilbert creator Scott Adams estimates
that he lost about 30 percent of his income and 75 percent of his friends. He
says that that level of political polarization has created a climate of genuine
fear.
“People will come up, and they’ll
usually whisper—or they’ll lower their voice, because they don’t want to be
heard—and they’ll say, ‘I really like what you’re doing on your Periscope, and
the stuff you’re saying about Trump,'” Adams says in Episode 389 of the Geek’s Guide to the
Galaxy podcast. “They’re actually afraid to say it out loud. They
literally whisper it to me in public places.”
Adams blames the current climate on
social media and a clickbait business model that rewards sensationalism over
fact-based reporting. Since the technology is here to stay, he says we’re going
to need new societal norms to help foster a calmer, more constructive political
discourse.
Yes, but this gets us into another major issue contributing
to the political polarization, i.e., emotions on one side vs critical thinking
on the other. Adams expands on that
point in an earlier book, Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts
Don't Matter, pictured above.
More of the Wired Scott Adams
interview is here.
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