I think that this might be the most important sentence in the NYT article. Perhaps the greatest evil of social and mass media is the ability of fringe idiots from both sides to shape the national discourse. They're tiny in number, they do violence and dangerous stuff, they are idiots, but most important, they are not representative of people who just want to live their lives. The end result of people only talking to others who think as they do is violence. The end result of people talking to people from "the other side" is terrifying amounts of agreement.Five fatalities were caused by domestic terrorism in the first eight months of this year, compared with the past five years, in which total fatalities ranged from 22 people to 66.
Anyone who can enumerate their political beliefs by stating their party allegiance has outsourced their thinking to a third party, which is irresponsible and dangerous. It's irresponsible because it is your job as a citizen in a republic to educate yourself, form an opinion and vote on it. It's dangerous because the people who are most likely to tell others exactly what to think are universally the least trustworthy on a personal and national level.