294. Double Bubble Trouble

I’ve been obsessed with drawing and describing our silos and bubbles that have become exponentially more and more pronounced. The surgical separation of humanity in two separate species by the United States is as fascinating as it is terrifying. Homo Liberalis and Homo Conservativus. And of course these terms have no semblance of consistency, as we see liberals and libertarians drifting apart and conservatives circling back to monarchy in the USA after a long period of separation.

My first attempt was this one: 

The blog post can be found here. When I first posted that comic in Reddit, I made a lot of people angry. Apparently, pointing out that people live in ideological bubbles is the same as saying both sides are equal. People’s reaction to the comic felt like denial to me. I think humans don’t seem to want to realize that they are in bubbles. But we are. Increasingly so. 

And make no mistakes, these bubbles are artificially generated. I was listening to The Lie Detectives, a good book about misinformation. If in 2016 you were a leftie that got an abundance of news about Hilary’s faults so that you would vote third party, this was designed. And you fell for it. And they did the same to divide the Pro-Jew and Pro-Palestinian (you can be both) sections of the democratic party in 2024. We are being divided like a family trying to choose a movie to watch. Some will only watch foreign films, some will only watch a film with Marvel in the title, some will tell you that movies are the work of the devil and some will blab for hours about Coppola. But in the end we can all find something to enjoy, except maybe for the movies-are-the-work-of-the-devil person. They can be left out. 

Back in Trump’s first term, I decided to venture into the Fox News void—plus some even darker corners of the media—to understand how people could possibly support him. Turns out, it’s simple: they were spoon-fed an alternate reality. One where crime is always out of control (unless Trump is in charge), where schools supposedly provide kitty litter for students who identify as cats (they don’t), and where the world is basically ending, but only in a way that can be solved by hating the right people. And yes, I’ve met people who genuinely believe these things. They walk among us.

But here’s the thing: no matter how many absurd lies they were told, they also got the facts about Trump’s presidency—and they loved it. They cheered as transgender individuals (a whopping 0.5% of the population) faced being banned from a volunteer military -an inhuman action Trump has been successful at in 2025.. They ate up his attempt at cancelling DACA, despite the fact that DACA, by design, had to be better than the average citizen.. They weren’t just misinformed; they actively agreed with the hate, the xenophobia, and the proudly dumbed-down worldview that came with it.

So no, in 2025, ignorance isn’t an excuse. At this point, they’re just a different species than me. Were they made to be this way or were they just packed together by algorithms like selfish sardines?
In 2025 both sides are not equal. One side wants to strip freedoms, and the other wants to protect them. One side loves an all-powerful leader with no accountability; the other side prefers democracy. You know, the system that’s guided the U.S. through centuries of prosperity.

But hey, maybe I’m just living in a bubble. A bubble that likes facts, won’t be told who to hate and believes that we are better together. But also a bubble in which I agree that we need strong borders and  explicit pathways to citizenship for the vast majority of people who are net positives. A bubble that believes capitalism can be bent to benefit the needs of many with the greed of the few. And I have to believe we can get some selfish sardines to come around. Or at the very least get the people who believe in liberty and equality to watch the same movies. 

If you saw this comic and spent time figuring it out and discovering its intricacies thank you, I know it wasn’t a “get it in 5 seconds” comic. My mother suggested that I make a simplified version and I am attaching it here!