I agree, but in my day to day existence I think the people who are more polarized probably consume their media in a very one sided manner. For years, I didn't follow news (as it was 90%+ always just focused on bad news) and then I started doing my own investing and followed the news. As an investor, I try to strip away emotion, look for facts and try to determine which facts are correct by using multiple sources and (gasp) critical thinking.
For me, media is there to keep people engaged and are more likely to get that engagement by negative views rather than positive views (look at Boston media with Patriots as a perfect example of what I'm talking about and even that is generally more positive than the media with politics. I just don't think with the speed social media and the change in News organizations from a more centric approach to ones that are actively pushing an agenda that people have developed the skills to take information in and digest it. It's either ignore as wrong or accept "fact" and that can be either all media or just what people view as their viewpoint.
the irony is that at the end of the day, people tend to associate with 1 group or another and adopt those beliefs, but ultimately are extremely ignorant to the all facts and put up blockers to accepting other thoughts. It's one has to win and other have to lose. But, the hope I have is that this is really a vocal group but certainly not the majority of people. But, that smaller more vocal group is growing in size and the center isn't as sizeable as it used to be.
Alas I have no solutions, but do see some hope in my kids (older teens) though they each seem to be drawn further to one side or the other but recognize the lunacy of the extremes.
Yeah, that's a no-no with my parents (and in-laws) as well. They seen to always have their news on and spew the information as if it's pure fat and seemed to have lost the ability to see reason. Interesting that people might be programmed by tuning into only 1 type of news. Also, seems to me at a certain age people just become locked and intractable (obviously a generalization that doesn't apply to all people).
A non-political example: Elder person driving and doesn't like that people are honking at them. Even when stated that they had about 3 feet of their car in the wrong lane, they refuse to believe it. I drive for those people every chance I can