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AKLynne's avatar

Anyone who thinks they are liberal media only need look at the mega corporations and billionaires that own them. You barely have to scratch the surface to find that out.

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skatoolaki's avatar

Because I have known them all my life and they are neither "stupid" or "crazy" and such labels are simply pointless if we're trying to understand this.

Most people who get sucked into cults (and this is all cult-like mindsets) are not literally stupid or crazy. In fact, most are educated and intelligent and seeking answers (that they find in the very wrong places).

It's so simple to say "oh, they're all just idiots, obviously" but a complex problem can't be solved by a simple definition. Most of these people (not talking about the screaming parents at school boards, of course) are not - I repeat, are NOT - literally "stupid" (uneducated, unable to think complex thoughts) or "crazy" (suffering from any mental illness). You do not have to tolerate their behavior but neither can you stuff in the dustbin of "that's just stupid" and leave it at that. Willfully ignorant? Sure. Intellectually lazy? Perhaps. A lack of understanding of how to use basic internet search skills and what to avoid? Undeniably.

What we have to also realize is that 30-some odd years of Fox News brainwashing has taught these people to accept bs. Taught them to readily swallow and accept propaganda. This is a terrible threat to this country and our democracy (see: QAnon and Jan 6). Foolish they may be but this has been fed to them for decades.

I can't take the simple, easy way out and deduce them all to being functionally deficient in intelligence and literally suffering mental illness. No, because that mostly isn't even true. This is a serious problem and I've watched family members and friends fall for propaganda and see how easy it is for that to happen. Propaganda is effective. Terrifyingly so. It works. And it's destroying this country. The first, true, step is to recognize we're up against something far more sinister and prevalent than "all these people are just idiots."

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