I remember growing up constantly having it made known to me what an honor and a privilege it was to be living in a nation where I had the rights to speak my mind and have my thoughts known without constant fear of retribution- where liberty of expression was celebrated and diverging views, though challenged, were allowed to formulate and have a place in the synthesis of the marketplace of ideas according to their merit and ability to withstand honest and fair scrutiny. This is an inheritance that did not come easily but was the product, both in its genesis and preservation, of sacrifice. This, along with the potential freedom offered came with a responsibility to uphold both the possibility of open discussion and the quality of discourse. I am no scholar of rhetoric, but as a politically engaged citizen as well as a dedicated student of philosophy, I think there is a strong precedent for me to speak on my observations in order to put my own ideas forward into that very same synthesis of ideas from a more meta perspective, and allow those observations to be stretched an magnified and critiqued as they may.

Echo chambers come in many forms. I am not prepared to say that we live in more of an echo chamber than we did before the invention of the internet- It would not be an intelligent thing for me to do to make that claim on account of my lack of expertise in the subject area of history of rhetoric. I will say, however, that I have an inclination that the initial boost given to discourse and the challenging of ideas provided by the age of information may be being turned upon itself by social media sites as a platform being refitted to reward people's confirmation biases. There also may be a cognitive pushback or, possibly more accurately, a mental drawing away from the 21st centuries readily available challenges to one's opinions.

Cliques of like minded people operating in insular fashion aren't a new phenomenon, but it seems as though that the engagement from these groups with the "other" side are dedicated to shutting the expression of other views down. As a left leaning thinker- I must make the admission that it is mostly leftists behaving in this manner, pushing be toward the center. However, from a historical point of view it would be a mistake to say this is a leftist phenomenon- indeed, historically the right acted this way on social and even economic issues. Teachers in my old high school have told me that at the beginning of their careers in the 1990's, speaking openly about gay rights would have been unthinkable, and think back to the protests of gay speakers at colleges that took place. I am happy to see that conservative millennials aren't following suit with this, but a holier than thou, smirky attitude of condescension toward "social justice warriors" about free speech or expression coming from the right as a whole isn't exactly fair either. For a long time in this country many groups of people had to live and speak about their issues in the shadows because of circumstances that progressives worked to change, with disdainful and more often than recognized, deadly response from their opponents, and we must not forget that.

It is an interesting position to be in-feeling like a liberal among conservatives and a conservative among liberals. I like our generation- I truly believe we have the most potential of any generation previous to ours because of our own vigor, and because we stand on the shoulders of giants. But, we have some serious growing up to do as a civilization of young people before we can actualize the energy and potential each and every one of us has inside of us. It will require us to realize that the whole is greater than the sum, and enlightenment doesn't come from shutting each other out or ourselves in, but through a renaissance of new ideas.