Q&A Friday #4: Can Americans Tell The Difference Between Hype & Truth?

Q: “Would you say that a majority of Americans are reasonably intelligent people capable of discerning between the hype and truth in the political process?” — Archangel

A: Yes, but with a couple of important caveats. First of all, there are partisans on both sides who are able to see the difference between hype and truth, but don’t really care as long as it benefits their side. Those are the people political junkies are frustrated by day in and day out, because they blindly toe an ideological line, no matter what the facts or circumstances of a particular issue may be.

But, the really big group of people who have a problem “discerning between the hype and truth in the political process” are Americans who don’t care about politics in the least. Are they capable of figuring out what’s happening? Sure, but they don’t pay attention to what’s going on.

Maybe they’ve come to believe that there isn’t much of a difference between the parties because of all the “Demlicans” & “Republicrats” out there, maybe they just don’t think 99.9% of what’s going on politically has any real impact on their personal lives, or maybe politics just bores them to tears. In any case, they can be fooled…at least for a period of time. But, that old maxim still applies…

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”

Eventually, even if we’re talking about people who are barely paying attention, most of them will figure out the truth. Regrettably, sometimes it’s too late…

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