This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedantan.

When you look at the partisan divisions in the United States and other countries,

you see something curious.

There's a bias, a double standard.

It's always there, it pervades our society.

It's not just that each side accuses the other of bias.

Right-wing media isn't doing journalism, it's doing fan fiction.

The left can insult people, the left can make outrageous statements,

nothing happens, oh it's different on the right.

They accuse one another of the same kinds of bias.

All the staff members at the New York Times,

Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, they're like cornered,

rabid rats. They've been selling us lies for so many years.

The Americans who listen to Fox News and conservative talk radio

are being lied to and manipulated every day.

Each side says the other is blind to facts, blind to reason.

Look, we're taking on a Republican party that has rejected science

where the vast majority of Republican congressmen and senators do not even accept

the reality of climate change. Let alone the need.

This is a metaphor really for the left's entire program,

which is built entirely on denying reality.

They deny the reality of illegal immigration,

...