Kurt Anderson is very "vocal" about his thoughts on the American government, saying:
"Dozens were elected to congress and became convulsive, tail wagging, Republican dogs"-- with a continued explanation of-- "they hate, or think they hate, the status quo, that including the government itself."
That is a lot of information to get started on (more so, lots of opinions).
Now, to provide a little bit more insight, let's look at a different quote that Anderson notes in the same chapter of his book, Fantasyland, by a talk-show host named John Zeigler. He says:
"We've effectively brainwashed the core of our audience. and now it's gone too far. Because the gatekeepers have lost all credibility in the minds of consumers, I don't see how you reverse it."
According to fantasyland, the news is what people want. They push what others want and when they realize the reality, a depression starts and people retaliate. Also, what we watch younger affects what we believe to be right. This supports the notion that conspiracies are to support one's beliefs and if it doesn't support, it is merely a conspiracy. We can see this with a fill-in-the-blank example:
_____ (Democrats/ Republicans) ______ (defend/reject) democratic favored conspiracies.
It's pretty common knowledge that not everything you find on the internet can not be considered 100% accurate, or "factual". Here, we have a source, a person in the media industry, telling us just that, and that because of the amount of non-credible information out there, it is harder for people to know what they should and shouldn't listen to. Over the years, news has become less news and more media a source of entertainment rather than information; giving people what they want to hear rather than what they want to know. The media looks into what people are interested in, and what people are more likely to watch because the audience enjoys the voice of their own thoughts. What Anderson tied this to was the people in the media. The people that hold influence because of these news reports and false scandals that people take so keenly a liking to. A person that Anderson looks to directly is previous president Trump.
Even before he ran for the role of president, Trump had a way of spreading news. Even before the media really- he held people's attention with outbursts of news- calling magazines and articles, and things like it, "garbage" and "trash". Kurt describes his actions as having "Kids-R-Us" syndrome, acting in a way of a "spoiled, impulsive, moody, seven-year-old brat".
The New York Times even wrote once, giving him even more publicity:
"Trump understands at least one thing better than almost everybody"- that the - "breakdown of a shared public reality, built upon widely accepted facts, represents not a hazard but an opportunity."
Trump has painted himself as an image that had to be noticed. He even admitted that he played off peopled people fantasy's by saying "I will give you everything- every dream you ever dreamt for your country." he described this as "winning". He campaigned his own voice by telling people to forget the press and to just read the internet, that it is where he gets all his info.
Looking today, Donald Trump's Twitter has been suspended once, with the official safety account tweeted "we have permanently, suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence". Before his account had 88 million followers, they locked it because of the hots at the capital over conspiracies on the election.
Senator Mark Warner tweeted later in response to the suspension - "an overdue step, but it's important to remember this is much bigger than one person. It's about an entire ecosystem that allows information and hates to spread and fester unchecked."
Democrats took advantage of this comment while republicans were enraged to push back, saying things and calling it a "left platform".
In conclusion to this, the internet is a place of opinion and less fact. A place for people's voices to be recognized and observed to be factual by like-minded people. Debates will be made, and facts might be presented eventually, but be aware that not everything is a fact, but more a fantasy.
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"You're entitled to your own opinions and your own fantasies, but not your own facts - especially if your fantastical facts hurt people"
- Thomas Jefferson.
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