Samson
Póg Mo Thóin
Good reads. The way i view it (aside from the sound assertion above regarding cognitive dissonance) many just don't cross check information. They become information loyalists. They will cling bitterly to bias information and don't bother to listen to anything else on a subject.
So yeah, they sincerely believe what they spew more often than not. And when confronted with conflicting information, immediately takes on a defensive position to insulate themselves from inner conflict over their loyalist information source.
YES.
Now, my question is "why"? It's looking more and more, at least what I've seen so far, to be a self-esteem issue. These people have an emotional, visceral reaction to having their views challenged, and react by clinging even more tightly to those views. Such behavior provides them with "a port in the storm", and that feeling is cemented by reinforcement from those who share their views.
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Interesting from a microanalytical POV.
However, Partisanship in the USA is mainly a result of our have under-representation in the "representative" government: With only 1 representatve per 770,000+ citizens, partisanship is the only alternative.
In other countries with much lower ratios of representation, they normally have three or more political parties, and diluting partisan behaviour.