The power/dangers of propaganda (as though you didn't already know... still, it's alarming to see concrete examples)
Fox News is creating a forcefield around Trump as indictments pile up: report
FTA: ... A whopping 91 percent of GOP voters who rely on right-wing media don't believe Trump committed serious crimes...
Republicans live in a completely different "reality" than the rest of us. The "culture war" has moved beyond culture and is now a war over the nature reality itself. Of course reality will decide this contest in the end, but there are likely to be numerous casualties on both sides along the way.
More interesting from a psychological/sociological/cultural/historical perspective is the question What makes this pattern, which has repeated itself numerous times throughout history, so seemingly inevitable for our species? Is there something "wrong" with us as a species? Or worse, is this pattern a necessary consequence of evolutionary game theory: Is any sufficiently advanced species guaranteed to suffer this fate? Is this why we don't see evidence of other advanced civilizations in the Universe? Is advanced life necessarily self-destructive?
What a horror to contemplate: Every other advanced civilization in the Universe might have collapsed before it could embark on interstellar travel because every such civilization inevitably produces (numerous instances of) its own Trump (sub Hitler, Mussolini, Pol Pot, Putin, Lenin, etc.).
On the bright side, perhaps this is Nature's way of keeping things fresh: If a species/civilization could survive long enough to explore the galaxy (or more), then who would be left to wonder about important stuff like "what the fuck can we do to survive Trump"?
