Everything you say is true. Except that right wing talk radio and later websites have spent the last 25 years convincing their listeners and readers that up is down and the sky is orange as long as they say it is so. For some time in the mid’00s I had a commute where the only radio I could pick up was a station that played talk radio from the right wing fringe — and I mean farther right than Rush and Hannity really seriously crazy stuff. I listened and the local callers were eating up the “everyone in the Main Stream Media” is lying to you, “The Gobment Is C’ming Ta T’ke Y’r Guns” — Caps and bad spelling included. Everything outside of maybe Fox news was lies and propaganda spread by the commies on the left who wanted to close down the churches and force godless evolution into their private schools. It was truly scary, then I had a conversation with a family member who moved down south a few years ago, and he sounded just like the radio programs. Except he was quoting the “not news” programs on Fox that look, sound and act like news but have a little disclaimer in the fine print at the end of the credits saying “this was not a news program, it is meant for entertainment purposes only.” But nobody either sees or pays attention to that — and I have this smart college educated family member quoting these entertainment guys from Fox like they were serious journalists and arguing that their shows should be taken more seriously than the Washington Post or the New York Times. “Because everyone knows they are in the pocket of the Democratic Party.” I know this family member hasn’t read either of these papers in years, just from talking t them — they are getting their news from Fox, mostly from “news” programs that aren’t news.

So while we may have a robust defense system, as long as Fox and the talk radio hosts keep making entertainment sound like news and lying while they do it we have just as big a problem as Europe and Asia did in the 1920’s and 30's.