As an old pede, you've got to realize that in my lifetime, information has changed - in two ways specifically. First, the 24-hour news cycle. When I was younger, you got either Time, Newsweek, or US News in the mail every week. Stuff didn't age off from Friday afternoon by Monday morning. That's very significant. Second, now everyone has a platform. Everyone has an instant network. Everyone is a pundit - expert, even - without having done any work (knowing history, deep dive into source docs and background, etc.). So now, everything is both instant and more superficial. And, of course, this leads to the polarization you see now. So to answer the question, probably no - but the comparison isn't quite apples:apples.
As an old pede, you've got to realize that in my lifetime, information has changed - in two ways specifically. First, the 24-hour news cycle. When I was younger, you got either Time, Newsweek, or US News in the mail every week. Stuff didn't age off from Friday afternoon by Monday morning. That's very significant. Second, now everyone has a platform. Everyone has an instant network. Everyone is a pundit - expert, even - without having done any work (knowing history, deep dive into source docs and background, etc.). So now, everything is both instant and more superficial. And, of course, this leads to the polarization you see now. So to answer the question, probably no - but the comparison isn't quite apples:apples.
Why?