>watching mainstream media and expecting anything less than garbage
yeah intensely profit-motivated media sucks, but if you substitute mainstream media for niched, specialist editorial websites, you're getting garbage just the same
turns out that since vietnam and watergate, media outlets have figured out the people eat up drama. these days media intentionally antagonizes and rails people just to get a rise out of them or to make them say stupid stuff. since people don't trust the government anymore, media has a much easier time selling sensationalist nonsense; people are willing to believe that the government is even worse than they thought. and when you don't trust people, you become polarized and hostile.
