Are we being intentionally divided by our governments?

It's said so often that it has become a cliché: That the way to rule a people is to "divide and conquer" and honestly, it feels that way in the USA and quite possibly elsewhere around the world. My only confusion behind all of this is how would it be possible that all of the politicians are in on it? I don't necessarily think that they are, but it does seem to be the name of the game lately. It doesn't really seem to matter what the topic is either, lines will be drawn in a political way and everyone seems to simply fall in line with it.

As a Libertarian whose party very rarely ever wins any elections, I find it easier than most of my "Red or Dead" or "Blue no matter who" compatriots. Since I don't really have any representation in elected offices I am more able to judge a particular debate or situation on its merits, rather than what my non-existent representative or news channel told me to think. I'd like to believe that people are not blindly following what their side's news channel is telling them to think but whether they want to believe it or not, they are most likely doing exactly that.

Rather than NBC, Fox, CNN, MSNBC being the culprits here, it is more than likely social media that is making people align themselves in a certain way because even though the word itself is overused, I do feel as though most people create echo chambers in their social media experience.

While at first I was happy to get my news feed from the Telegram app, there is no denying that their are various echo chamber "gangs" that have already been formed over there as well. I came to this realization the other day when I noticed that i accidentally had created my own echo chamber since virtually all of the feeds that I am following have a post every other day or so that suggest following the same people

I ended up getting stuck in this loop because I find Trump's statements to be amusing and I also wanted to pump his numbers to kind of "stick it to the man" when he was banned from other platforms. I have no idea how many people actually follow him on Telegram but it is something in the millions.

However, because of this one channel I followed, I suddenly found that most of the people or organizations that I was following all had the same "follow these guys too!" sections that all had the same names in them. Now, even though I am conservative, I don't like seeing manipulation of the masses by any sort of group effort and that is exactly what is happening over on Telegram. I don't even know if there are any moderate or liberal voices on Telegram at all, I would presume there are but since I accidentally created my echo chamber, I am never going to find them.

Perhaps I should seek them out just so I can have some balance in my life.

There are more than 2 sides to any particular argument, but when we put ourselves into these one of two sizes fits all categories, it is a recipe for groupthink disaster and one that I had been trying to avoid. I point the finger at liberals on a regular basis but conservatives are just as guilty of it. Seriously, when was the last time you saw a politician from the same side of the aisle get into a debate with someone that was also from that side of the aisle? It almost never happens in politics and therefore this extends down the line to all of us at the end.

Perhaps this division is necessary for politicians and they work to ensure it stays that way. This is why there is an option on ballots in my state to vote just for a party, rather than for individual candidates many of which voters in any particular area probably haven't even heard of yet vote for them anyway. I would like to see this option scrubbed from the voting booth and maybe even take the letters (R and D) away from their names as well. I mean honestly, if you don't know which party a person is with unless that letter is there to let you know, should you really be voting for them?

This divide is likely not going to go away, but I would like to see some people start to actually investigate the entirety of a candidate on the totality of a person rather than just political affiliation.