Not (necessarily) a Trump voter, but a conservative nonetheless. I think it's a little more complicated. There's a style of propaganda that seems uniquely tuned to how technology has changed the way we engage with news. It goes something like "this thing you are saying is happening isn't, but if it was it's actually good, and if it's actually bad you deserve it". This formulation absolutely drives engagement numbers across the political spectrum, regardless of the "truthiness" of any of the preceding claims. That particular progression just didn't happen when we all dutifully read our newspapers with our morning coffee because it takes a few cycles to formulate. A lot of conservatives I know just don't engage with news anymore because once you notice these kinds of rhetorical patterns you can't un-see them.

> A lot of conservatives I know just don't engage with news anymore because once you notice these kinds of rhetorical patterns you can't un-see them.

CNN and WaPo both engage in word association type brainwashing. Anything negative one republican does, they associate it with all to help build that unconscious bias. In other sentences they'll associate proud boys or other extremist groups with the republicans to help build that idea that all republicans are extremists. It's a big part of why there's a huge divide these days. And yes, it gets old and sickening.

Liberal Biden voter here: Totally. Everyone is absorbing media that spends 90% of its energy encouraging them to think that they're being attacked by the other half of the country. Both ends of the spectrum are encouraged to have a victim complex that makes them feel totally justified in their heinous behavior, because in their minds they're just defending themselves against the aggressor.

It's kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. I consume no media directly, but I get exposed to the victim complexes quite thoroughly here on HN. And from that I do indeed get the impression that I'm under attack.