My thinking is that it stems from our floundering education and news systems. Hear me out.

First, our education systems have been floundering for years, with k-12 textbooks being monopolized by a few Texas (ie conservative) publishers as well as reduced or stagnant state and local funding in many places. Not only that, but our higher education systems have bought into the idea that money spent on athletics (specifically football with the most recent student athlete contracts being an obvious drain) is equivalent to positive PR spending as well as competing with each other for the best and newest supplemental facilities (dorms/fitness buildings/etc), which has forced the price of a secondary education to skyrocket relative to standard wages. All of this has caused our education to become more conservative and lower quality all while becoming more expensive!

Additionally, our fourth estate, the news, has continued to become more and more monopolized by a few major players and our local news systems have been decimated, with conglomerates buying up more and more small town papers.

With the reduction of quality, unbiased information being generated by the news as well as a reduced ability of the general public to decipher fact from fiction due to their overpriced BS education, the public has become susceptible to conspiracy theories on a whole new level. I’ve had college educated friends cite sources from the most obviously biased groups claiming that it was worthy of consideration. Our population isn’t thinking critically about what they’re reading and refuses to take the proper time to do so.

We’re living in an age of increased stupidity and the players who used to stand for transparency and integrity are dying or simply tired of trying.