It’s obvious that Americans live in social bubbles — living and talking in circles divided by economics, race, ideology, geography, taste and so on. It’s nice to imagine that we can broaden someone’s understanding of the world by illuminating their blind spots. The problem is that our helpful corrections are likely to be totally wrong. The difficulty of getting it right might explain the overwhelming vindication people clearly feel when someone else’s ideological bubble really has been pricked. They are, after all, incredibly pleasant and convincing when you’re on the inside.

Source: New York Times December 11, 2018 09:56 UTC