Yochai Benkler and colleagues have published news media producer and consumer network analysis studies proving that the political right wing is in an extreme bubble of unreality and conspiracy mongering, while almost the entire rest of the world forms a i=diverse diffuse network of moderate and civil discourse.
For deep background reading (which apparently only the left-wing and centrists engage in) see the excellent book: The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom"
http://benkler.org/Benkler_Wealth_Of_Networks.pdf
and
"Network Propanganda: Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics"
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/network-propaganda-yochai-benkler/1129078833
It is a bummer Benkler's network study cannot do the same analysis back in time, to trace the history and progression of the right wing insularity. (Although using other archives a weaker network study might be possible somehow? e.g., like at least tracing subscriptions.) My suspicion is that the insularity on the political right has been growing over time and has exploded with first the appearance of the Fox News network and then with the crazy radio hosts who were inspired by Limbaugh (although I think it can be traced back further with many predecessors going back many decades) and now Jones and the online media. And I also suspect this is ultimately going to collapse. Honestly, I think such an insular network based on an evident false diet of hateful propaganda and biased stories and downright lies cannot self-subsist for too long before reality exposes them and they collapse under their own lies. At some point even the nutcases will realise it is better for one's health (both financially and psychologically) to be well-informed than misinformed. Especially if the right wing network demographics is ageing, which I also suspect to be the case, they are bound to diminish into irrelevance. They are likely shrinking not only in diversity but in population as well. The question is, will they survive long enough to have their cherished full-on fascist moment in history?
What sustains these right wing lunatics is, however, not their own network, but the equally insane and far more destructive forces of nelliberalism, which have both right wing and centrist champions. They (the neoliberal collective) have been the historic cause of all the economic austerity and suffering in the world, not the ultra-right. So unless neoliberals are crushed and vanquished once and for all, these violent fascist right wingnuts will continue to survive on their diet of hatred for the neolibs (who they would consider "Normies"). The tragedy is that these right wingers do not see that the Tea Party and Freedom Caucus idiots are just another corrupt wing of neoliberalism: see Mirowski's "Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste" --- neoliberalism is truly a vast collective covering centre left and centre right think tanks, lobbyists and politics, and the likes of Pelosi, Schumer, Perez and Nadler are part of this global neoliberal collective, as are Macron, Theresa May, Scott Morrison, Trudeau, and yes, even Trump. All neoliberals, all favouring big money interests of various stripes, all favouring market driven "solutions" to every problem, just with slightly different biases. BTW:tis is not conspiracy theory, the neoliberals are not a global conspiracy, read Mirowski's book --- the neoliberals are split into many warring factions, but they are all deluded by their own rhetoric and misreading of economic reality, and this unified misreading of economics (basically neoclassical market econs) is what characterizes global neoliberalism. Neoliberals conspire not be design, but by simple banal common miseducation of each other. Prime example: consider Obama... how he moaned and bitched about not being able to do what he wanted in 2008 ad how he said he had no other option but to bail out Wall Street... that was prime grade A neoliberal bullshit. He sure as hell had other options, by executive order,e.g., he could have fired all the bankers but bailed out the bank institutions, as just the weakest effort, but he failed to even do that. He did not deploy progressive responses to the 2008 crisis because he was blinded by listening to the snake oil salesmen of neoliberalism, Tim Geitner and Larry Summers, Ben Bernanke, et al. In summary: these are the f**kers we need to get rid of in order to starve the right wingnut machine of it's oxygen.
