Yer Captain will readily acknowledge that I live in an "echo chamber" of sorts.
This concept came up in recent years as people on the Left of the political spectrum wondered how the people on the Right of the political spectrum could hate Democrats and love Trumpf so deeply.
The "echo chamber" affect suggests that in their daily life, in the news telecasts they watch, and in their social media, the Right Wing messages are consistently echoes and amplified.
They hear nothing else.
By choice.
Thus, "the world must be flat because that's what everybody is telling me!"
"I know, that's not what they taught me in school."
"But they're also telling me a free public education is bad."
"I'm being brainwashed by the Liberals who have run this country into the ground."
"And no, I can't believe the "lame-stream media" when they tell me the economy is doing great! FoxNews tells me our nation is in a mess!"
"And only Republicans can fix it!"
"And I believe them!"
"Because that's all I ever hear."
"And Donald Trumpf - he's not a politician"
"He tells it like it is!"
But yer Captain suspected not too long ago that the same thing could be happening on the Left, as rhetoric around the GOP candidate started to get heated.
I hear a lot of it repeated.
A lot of memes beings shared.
Yes, I, too, am living in an echo chamber.
I have carefully weeded out the voices I do not want to hear.
Voices that disagree with me.
Friends in real life, friends in social media.
Yer Captain is 61 years old, has a bachelor degree from a liberal arts college and a master degree from a very liberal seminary. I have been a full-time preacher for 35+ years. I continue to study.
So if you don't share (at least most of) the Captain's opinions concerning politics and life in general, then chances are you are not on my list.
Captain's Note: For those who are curious, the Captain has less than 200 "Facebook Friends".
So with this self-realization, I occasionally venture out to see what the other side is saying and doing.
Maybe the Captain is wrong and I've been listening to the wrong voices.
Then I see an image like this, taken straight from the National Republican Convention:
People shouting "Round them up!" as the candidate for president talks about immigrants in our nation.
Nope. The Captain is not wrong.
Definitely not wrong.
Come November, the Captain will be a yellow dog Democrat.
Quite literally, I will vote for an old yellow dog on the Democrat ballot before voting for any Republican.
You have been warned!
