Americans are increasingly divided, not only politically, socially, and economically, but geographically. Our lack of real-world interaction makes us all the more susceptible to hateful, rage-baiting messages spread by those who benefit from keeping us divided and afraid of one another. Most Americans have never met anyone in real life that they hate as much as the caricatured versions of their political opponents. The imaginary friends of our childhoods get replaced by the imaginary enemies that exist somewhere, out there, beyond the borders—online and off—of our silos of homogeneity. Forget having united states, between political messaging, physical divides, and now contorted gerrymandering, we don’t even have united neighborhoods anymore.
