[Fricken]

The internet has arrived. Institutional media outlets no longer direct the public discourse. Has this improved our ability to sort fact from fiction? Quite the opposite. When the 5th estate is in crisis, democracy is in crisis. You don't know what you got 'til it's gone.

[ConfuciusSay02]

Despite what we like to think, with every declassified document released we learn that what we thought were facts in the past were really just fictional stories being pushed upon us by the media.

Our ability to see this deception admittedly means that finding the truth will be a bit more messy than the "truths" we've been presented with in the past. But far from this diminishing our ability to discern truth, it is helping us by forcing us to return to critical thinking.

If this means democracy is in crisis, then democracy requires deception to operate.

[Fricken]

I've got facts you can spin into whatever dumb shit you feel like believing. How we choose to direct civilization is less contingent on facts than beliefs. When our belief systems are as badly fractured as they are we can't do much of anything, we're a clusterfuck nation. Even our best people, armed with the best facts available can't predict the future, but a bad plan is better than no plan at all. Nobody is even on the same page anymore.

Our world is officially too complex for anyone to understand, and you expect the average voter to to engage critical thinking to positive effect? We just failed at that catastrophically. It's completely unrealistic, there's no evidence for it.

[ConfuciusSay02]

I agree with you. I think I'm just more optimistic is all.