Originally Posted by SecondFloor

Thommy - you're right - I read everything you said and I agree with you.

You made a good point about advertising, that people fall for cheap political tricks the way they fall for advertising schemes. Maybe this is part of the root of the problem. Wealthy capitalists don't really want well-informed citizens who would see through advertising techniques, consume less garbage, and vote in their own interests. They want people easily persuaded - even without facts or evidence.

I think the U.S. has this problem worse than others, but I also worry deeply about European countries going the same route - Orban's Hungary, Andrzej Duda's Poland, and other un-democratic trends in the EU. I think the motivations behind the far-right movements in Europe are often similar to those in the U.S.