Mac Harmon

In the USA, Libertarians and Communists are exactly alike in four ways: 1. They never win elections. 2. They always help elect the party most opposed to their beliefs. 3. They are both convinced that their beliefs will work in actual practice if only anyone had ever actually tried them. 4. They both go to sleep at night with narcissistic self-love over "muh principles," but wake up in the middle of the night with nightmares regarding what their "principles" have actually accomplished.

We have a real problem in the modern world. All of the lies and hoaxes since 2016 (and before) have rightfully caused many Americans (me included) to reflexively distrust anything they hear from "experts" or the media. That's not the problem, that's actually a good thing. It's causing people to check their assumptions rigorously. No, the problem is people who have experienced 2016 onward and now believe that while they can no longer trust the "experts" or the media, they CAN reflexively trust random people with big social media voices whose ideas are wildly out of the mainstream and reflect concepts of hidden forces manipulating all of us, with that trust engendered precisely because the ideas are so contrary to conventional wisdom that they "must be right." What I'm saying is that the years since 2016 have created a sub-culture of conspiratorialist whackos. Yes, I know that so many "conspiracy theories" have proven to be true. I get that and agree. But many conspiracy theories are just that--nutso lies spread by the mentally ill. The trick is to be discerning. What I am saying is that we should all reflexively distrust EVERYONE who tries to tell us what to think. We all must do our own due diligence on EVERYTHING. We should all distrust the Dave Smiths of the world as much as we distrust the MSNBCs of the world. THAT is my point.