i don't think we fully appreciate the power of foxnews.

it's hard to imagine the point of view of the foxnews audience, because whenever we hear even a snippet, it's so ridiculously obvious to us how much they lie, how much they make us, how completely biased they are.

we like to think they simply get their talking points and their uncritically convinced. which is largely the case, but it's not quite that simple.

i've spent enough time talking with right-wingers to know that they are completely and utterly convinced not only that they are right and we are wrong, but in fact they are also convinced that:

- they are far better informed than us
- they use critical analysis skills to assess and evaluate their information
- they get their information from multiple sources
- we are uninformed
- we are sheeple
- we are the ones blindly reciting talking points

they feel this way because they hear their side from multiple programs on foxnew *and* hate radio *and* republican politicians *and* social media.

it's very convincing when you hear something from multiple sources and don't realize how deliberately coordinated those views are.



right now i'm not feeling very encouraged about america finding a way out of this mess.
it's hard enough to figure out how to survive donnie's reign of error.

but even if we're successful, even if he resigns in disgrace, we'll cheer as if we've accomplished something enduring, only to find the foxnews audience goes on and they will coalesce around the next tyrant, who no doubt will be far more capable than donnie.

this is true even if we win the house and the senate. that will be great, but donnie won't sign anything, and neither will his republican replacement be (and please don't try to suggest that pelosi can become president if donnie and pence are both removed. they would never be removed at the same time and some other republican would become president after being nominated and confirmed as vice president in the interim).

we're not likely to do anything about russian interference, at least we're not likely to fix our voting systems by 2018, probably not even 2020, so it's hard to envision us sweeping the elections in 2020. even still, republicans will filibuster and foxnews will gin up fake scandals galore.


i know i'm getting ahead of ourselves, we have to fight donnie first.

but it's been and will continue to be a long, long battle.