Add my "what went wrong" take to the pile

[TwilightZone]

65. DU has always been its own bubble.

President Biden said this summer that people needed to step out of their silos and see things from different perspectives.

We are, without a doubt, one of those silos. We're kind of a silo within a silo within a silo.

In many ways, it's a positive, because it's a safe place for Democrats, liberals, and others of similar persuasion. It can also be an excellent source of information on politics and many issues beyond. The amount of misinformation that gets through is reduced drastically compared to other social media, though not entirely. The community is often quite good at rooting out the nonsense.

But, it's also a bit of an isolation zone. We're a niche audience, and DU doesn't represent anything beyond DU, in most respects. We're our own little ecosystem. And, we're not immune to projection.

DU may paint a somewhat-rosy picture of the party, though I'm not sure I'd totally agree. There's always been a contingent that is pretty hard on the party, really to a fault. They're more apparent at times like these, when things have gone poorly.

DU does sometimes paint a too-rosy picture of outside events. The hyperbolic optimism about this election, for example - some went as far as to insist that it was going to be a historical Reagan/Mondale landslide and chastised anyone who disagreed - didn't do us any favors. It only set up ridiculously unrealistic expectations that only made the eventual crash that much more profound.

I personally find that DU works best when combined with other sources, both for varying perspectives and to ensure that the bubble isn't unduly influencing how I view people or events.

All that being said, it can be hard to be a skeptic and a realist in this place sometimes!