Who would have believed that millions could gobble up so much bullshit?

[Jeebo]

14. How can such a large segment of the populace be so thoroughly misinformed?

I worked for a newspaper for 45 years. I am retired now, but I did a lot of copy editing, among other things, for that newspaper. The communications industry used to be governed by noble principles like accuracy checking, vetting your sources, doing lots of things like that to make sure that what you were telling people was true.

Not so much any more. Now any doofus can post anything anywhere and there's nothing in place to check whatever the aforementioned doofus says, no matter if it's total bullshit. I always tell people when they tell me that "I read it on Twitter" or wherever that they should consider the source, that anybody can post anything someplace like that, that it's not subject to accuracy checking or fact checking or any means of making sure it's true. In other words, don't believe everything you read. That's more true now than it was even as recently as 15 or 20 years ago.

Of course, we also have intentional, deliberate propaganda sources like right-wing hate radio and Fox So-Called News (as Thom Hartmann calls it).

No wonder so many people are so out of touch with reality.

Another thing I always tell people is, Don't believe television advertising, especially political ads! TV ads are just about the worst possible way to guide and inform your voting decisions. My local newspaper (the one I worked for for 45 years) publishes a voter's guide a week or two before every election. I consult that guide to figure out which candidates and issues are more in tune with my ideology and political leanings and which direction I think the city, state, country and planet should be heading.

-- Ron