and i dont mean that as a diss.

its the reason i started gradually removing myself from the online 'progressive' echo chamber. because it was making me somewhat delusional to how the country (and average people) really work.

when you are constantly having your biases confirmed and your perspective reinforced even against all evidence to the contrary...you start believing things like rally size, hand selected polls, soundbites and memes, etc are more substantive than they really are (because they work in your favor).

and you start dismissing/overlooking real concrete historical voter behavior that really matters...like the fact that virtually every dem nominee for decades has won south carolina and the national black vote (they go hand in hand for the most part).

or you start believing that youre part of some unstoppable vast broad diverse coalition because your candidate is endorsed by a handful of progressive congressional women of color (compared to the majority of black/hispanic caucus members).

or you start believing that you represent the real heart of a party that wins its congressional majorities overwhelmingly with politicians you deem to be out of touch with the party base. and you believe the candidate you most align with is the best positioned to lead an entire party whose voters rejected him by significant margins. twice.

that entire media ecosystem now (young turks, the intercept, kyle kulinkski, currentaffairs, etc) has turned into 1 big ideological massage parlor that has become less about informing their audience and more about narcotizing them into a false sense of influence/acceptance/popularity of their perspective/agenda.