My takeaway from the election

[Undertoad]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

We only accept the facts and explanations that we agree with. We have our picture of the world and when presented with information that we disagree with, we simply reject it.

Then we surround ourselves with people, channels, websites that agree with us, and we ONLY share the information that proves us all to be correct. We wind up with a collection of information that is half wrong, but we can't see it. We don't really know what we're wrong about, but we persist in believing that we are right, because we enjoy that.

It is a non-partisan observation, because both sides do this. It also applies to religion and just about everything else that there are disagreements about.

Once you are in a particular thought bubble it's very difficult to get out. In serious cases, you may have to leave friends, even significant others behind.