[drewcoo]

Were you alive before the Internet?

Life used to be, if anything, more political.

Earlier in the 20th century, there were a lot more (local) newspapers and they all had very pointed points of view. Radio stations tended to be independent and if they had news broadcasts, it would be hyper-local and often political. Hell, thriving union membership gave us the greatest prosperity this country has seen and unions are very political.

In the first half of the 20th century we even had such a healthy, political society that more than two parties were often deemed viable.

In the 19th century the arguments for papers still hold. And voter turnout was much higher[1], albeit more male and more white.

[1] https://historyincharts.com/the-history-of-voter-turnout-in-...

[andrew_]

Approximately half of my life has been pre-broadband (which for me defines the arrival of the modern, very-online Internet). I find your points to be heavily biased and unrelatable. You're also conflating the media with the individual. My own experience before the arrival of very-online-internet does not match what you describe. Sure, there were media outlets and those outlets spoke about politics. However, individuals had no easily accessible soap boxes to speed vitriol and hurl accusations at others anonymously as they do now. Individuals didn't announce their preferences and every opinion to the neighborhood.