Reddit has, in r/philosophy, a post saying "escape the echo chamber. Here is my response.
Rather simplistic. The extrapolation is that the "other guys" are actually right and if you agree with those around you, are, or become wrong. There is a valid argument for objective truth and validity of a position. If a person actively tries to think critically about their position and can rationally defend it, it is indeed a position not an opinion. This proposed argument applies only and in a limited fashion to emotionally based ideas and causes. like identity politics, where hatred, or love of a person trumps valid rational argument. Then it does become an echo chamber. When discussion centers on an objective set of values, like those in the Bill of Rights, one has to truly stretch to take a radical stance. If the rights of free speech exist, or the right to privacy and security "in one's papers and possessions" is the law, then there is no alternate position that is rationally based. The assumption of that irrationally based opinion allows for the echo chamber phenomenon. indeed, it requires such behavior to allow people to maintain that opinion. If the law of the land that can only be changed by a Constitutional Convention of States says something is the law, only an echo chamber can stand in opposition, and one only need look at the US today to see that happening. When political fads become the stance of the ruling party, and demonization of both the law and those who support it become the accepted norm, it is the echo chamber writ large. We are in it now.
