via reputable public media.

Which is the right instinct but the wrong reason not to trust them

I don't understand how people could be so gullible as to not question anything at all, especially after Trump's first administration. It's not all Fox News out there, but it seems like it may as well have been.

Kamala didn't even win the popular vote. It makes little sense.

When that Schatz fuck-wad was the featured contributor with Judy Woodruff.

That was it, after the second time Judy's fawning "interview" with him, PBS absolutely showed their cards.
American Media is ripped straight from the pages of Hitler's propaganda playbook.
Dangling a couple of "liberal" contributors/pundits is an obvious ploy for pretense of fair and balanced reporting.
I don't listen or watch Democracy Now either as it is the flip side of the same coin I've come to realize years ago. But still, American Corporate Madia is the primary source. and cause ignorance in our population, and that's a very sad and dangerous situation we are living in.
When folks here begin to actually understand how we contribute to their agenda and profit by watching and sharing and repeating their crap, possibly a healthy level of intelligence might emerge.
But right now, it looks like that ship has sailed long ago, and I don't see change for the better.

The media, rightfully isn't trusted but the reason it shouldn't be trusted is quite the opposite of why it isn't trusted.

Our political institutions have failed for the past 4 decades to make life better for most Americans.

Businesses operate one scam after another and only get punished when they fuck with wealthy people.

So Trump is the opposite of the answer but tapped into the reality we are a failed state

They are made angry and stupid, supporting the weirdest beliefs when they are triggered.

Issues are repeated in a narrow space of time, on all the shows - and all the media -
when they want them to go post on media to be angry

It’s absolutely amazing to watch.

Pavlov and Goebbles together

It is very effective propaganda and brainwashing. Spot on w/ the Goebbels and Pavlov.

Some of the "hosts" on Fox and notnewsmax are sociopaths. It is uncomfortable to watch. I wanted to know what was happening - where and how people were getting their distorted convictions.

I don't know what's being taught in our schools anymore, but students are clearly not learning how to read, write, and use basic principles of grammar and logic. E.g., I listen to what's supposedly one of the best public radio stations in the country, and it's become a continual stream of ambiguous sentence structure and malaproprisms, not to mention mispronunciations.

And if you can't use words clearly and don't understand the basics of logic, you can't think clearly.

Being required to learn at least one foreign language is also extremely helpful in developing thinking skills, including an appreciation of different forms of expression of the same basic idea can alter nuances of meaning and effect.

I meant college. Pollsters many times use categories of college-educated and non-college educated, but there are many very bright people who never attended college.

If it's because of the schools, then the schools have been bad for a very long time.

A very large number of the U.S. population is ignorant, frightened, stupid, racist, bigoted, and misogynistic.

We very much get it – finding a solution is the problem; indeed, there likely isn’t a solution.

and none of them vote R as far as I know.
I find that maybe even more alarming

They have no interest in the truth. They believe only what they want, and avoid truth. It's infuriating!

The MSM is lost. Only money matters.

at this point. I don't really give a damn what other people choose to believe. When reality slaps them in the face, it's going to hurt bad. Not bad enough for them to change their ignorant, arrogant, assholishness. That will require a heavier hit of reality. I do have hope though...change is a great waker-upper.

It doesn't give two shits what any of us believe. In life, you either get on board with it, or eventually it runs you over.

in some of my life's lessons. Reality not matching up to my fantasies, is one I've had to repeat. I have several people in my life, who have had to do a quick job of catching-up on their beliefs about the country they've called home all these years. It's everywhere... and if you don't look you don't see. It seems equally disturbing regardless of what strata of society you're hanging in.

Asimov wrote about it in the 80's.

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”

https://aphelis.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/ASIMOV_1980_Cult_of_Ignorance.pdf

We've not changed. If anything, social media has made it several factors of 10 worse. Instead of just infecting their close friends with their ignorance, word of mouth, they can now spew it across the globe. We need to learn to live with that genie in some useful fashion before it destroys us all. I hope it's not too late.

"We all say so, so it must be true." – the Bandar-log (the monkey people) in Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book

And yet, there are still those who insist the wild phrasing of fiction is found only in books.

And we'd better learn how to survive in it, and fast....

We live in the real Idiocracy.

I agree. From what I see, many of these of solid upper middle class people who prefer to promote their own selfish, biased opinions. Opinions not based on facts.

People construct their own fears and their fear comes out as hate towards anything that challenges their opinions

Why do you thing rethugs always gut education funding, and are now about to cut the Dept. of Education? Ifnorant and uninformed voters most often vote republican.

Informed voter, those with critical thinking skills one gets from good schooling, tend to vote Democratic.

It's not complicated.

Now algorithms give people one line, the headline, and that’s all that a lot of people see.

We're talking a conscious and obstinately determined rejection of information and facts. I've seen it, dealt with it, first hand (in other venues).

Bottom line, people who DON'T WANT TO KNOW anything contrary to what they WANT to believe.

As I've oft written, it was like talking to a fkn rock

And happily, even proudly so.

the only way they will learn is to have to suffer... sadly, they take us with them... but it's going to take a lot of suffering from all the lies that they were told, knowing that they were lies... It's going to take the loss of their jobs, their retirement, their SSI and Medicare, to open up their eyes... but by then, it will be to late....

The four little words they are going to be hearing for the next four year are..."We Told You So!!" ... and they are going to be hearing it a lot...

Serious question. I have serious doubts about that, at least with regards to prejudice and perhaps for understanding the world. For example, nonsense abounded in the past: Reagan was spewing about trees as a major source of pollution before he was elected. Yet, the electorate didn't care. Another point: The hard-core racists of the segregated South are mostly dead.

How do we explain the willing acceptance of nonsense and bad behavior by leaders? As implied in the op-- people believe that which they find most consistent with their prior beliefs. Among MAGAs an entire political religion has been created for them, and they interact with others who while not true-believers are influenced to some degree.

Social media has increased the noise level significantly over the time when TV, radio and newspapers delivered mostly facts and news-- that plays a role-- maybe the key factor. People don't know what to believe and perhaps don't care. People are more confused perhaps these days.

People vote their pocketbook on the economy and are very willing to embrace change there.

In almost any other area, voters don't seem to embrace change at all. For example, the GOP attracts voters by opposing social change and expansion of civil rights.

Most Americans are average intelligence. Capable, kind, decent people.

Media, especially social media, has leaned right for decades. Propaganda works. Add the fact people are working harder for less, many just don't have time to get past headlines and whatever the algorithm puts in their feed.

Then maybe they shouldn't vote.

Maybe it's just me but my idea is meeting people where they are one on one regarding a better way forward. Sure, there are some who are going to just take a hard stance on whatever their little niche issue is, but I simply don't believe the vast majority of voters can't be reached. It is harder work because of the media tilt, but it's not hopeless. I just can't believe that. You'll have to allow me my "Pollyanna glasses" on this one.

think we do get it. How to deal with it is another problem altogether.

and a moron. We have too many on the Left who just can't seem to grasp the concept of voting for the Democratic Party nominee because doing that would have changed history..

No more "Harris didn't run a 110% perfect campaign" bullshit for me---we lost because of how many fucking morons there are in this country, willing and able to put the worst possible president back in office for another hyper-destructive four years---aided and assisted by all the foolish Democrats who just didn't trouble themselves by voting. No wonder the rest of the world is just shaking their heads at what has happened.

That’s the global population