@glitterbag,
Quote:I simply cannot fathom how the hell this happened.
It's been long in the making, starting with a process best described as the 'dumbing down' of America, via defunding public education and launching disinformation campaigns, eg on climate change. This effort was essentially a Republican one. The result is generations of ill-informed, easily influenceable voters. The Tea Party, etc.
Then the Internet came along. Soon, for every healthy informational website out there (eg wikipedia) there were hundreds of disinformation outlets pedling fake news to a gullible populace. The US is the most Internet-dependent country on earth, and hence the most exposed to its negative effects.
(Other countries are fast catching up though... See the recent watsap-induced murder sprees in India.)
This is not about Trump; he's just a puppet amongst many others. This is about survival of bona fide democracy in the age of mass disinformation.