It was once thought that stupidity and ignorance was not infectious. This has been proven wrong by the United States. In the 2016 US elections, Trump received 46 percent of the popular vote. This amounted to 63,000,000 Americans being affected by the disease of stupidity and ignorance.
These are not stupid and ignorant people in a day to day sense. They hold down jobs or run businesses, can dress themselves, have children, care for those children, volunteer, buy and maintain homes, shop and feed themselves and carry out all the myriad of chores that modern people must do to function in today's world.
What they don't do, is think! Nor do they read scholarly books on history. Nor do they fact check on matters of political importance. Donald Trump is a proven liar. Not an alleged liar. A proven liar! So what sort of person believes a proven liar? Only a stupid and ignorant person.
In today's world, it is a relatively simple matter to spend a bit of time digging down through the surface rhetoric of politicians to separate fact from fiction. There are libraries in most towns and communities in the western world plus there is a wonderful invention called the internet. Granted, there are reams and reams of misleading nonsense and sheer fabrications on many websites on the "net".
One has to be careful to ensure the origins of the sources of information gathered is reputable. This is relatively simple by avoiding "news" from sources such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and a myriad of other social media websites, often plagued by trolls from countries where democracy is a dirty word. Countries such as China, Russia, and North Korea top the list. And of course their is much trolling originating in the US. It is a simple matter to check out the history of websites that claim political expertise. How long has the website been running? Is its location obvious or is it hidden behind a VPN? Are the sources of information on the website anonymous? If so, why? Is the promoter of the website anonymous? Again, why?
The truth is out there. But online, it is becoming more difficult find. Lies are 70% more likely to be retweeted than facts according to a recent MIT study on Twitter. Somehow, the information age has become the disinformation age. Where do we go from here?
The greatest weapon against stupidity and ignorance is education. The greatest place to educate yourself is your local library. You don't have to worry about being trolled. You do however have to keep an open mind and read books presenting both sides of whatever topic you are researching.
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