When educated, successful men totally believe everything the regime and Media tell 'em, U.S. is toast

"Opinion polls" presume one can get a very close idea of what the population is thinking from a small sample, assuming it's a fairly weighted sample.  (Spoiler: the sample group is never fair, but read on.)

I was raised in the largest city of a flyover state, so the city was fairly small.  No revolutionaries, no anarchists, and the only drug (rare) was weed.  Transgenders were unknown.  As teens we could go anywhere without danger.  Murder was almost unheard of.

My small circle of friends all came from good homes, with two stable, non-druggie parents.  So yes, we were extremely lucky.  At the time we didn't realize it.

We all graduated from college, most with "useful" degrees, and are of us all successful.  Upper middle-class.  All my friends' kids are successful, and grandchildren poised to be so.  No drug addicts, no psychopaths.  Most are still on their first marriage.

Definitely American-dream stuff.

Recently, half a century after highschool, during the lockdown for duh Chyna virus, we managed to re-connect via Zoom.  And chatting with my old friends has been...eye-opening, to say the least.

All but one are Democrats and liberals.  All but one have no complaints that they're willing to voice about what the biden and obama regimes have done to the country.  As far as they're concerned, things are, if not perfectly fine, at least far closer to perfect than if Orange Man were still president.

I'm incredulous:  (1): Are you not aware of the scores of..."anomalies" about the 2020 election? 

 "The 2020 election was the most honest in history.  The media said so.  Any stories to the contrary are just conspiracy stories pushed by goofy right-wingers."

(2): Did any of you object when biden ORDERED every American working for a company with 100 or more employees to take the experimental, ineffective covid "vaccine" or be fired?

"No, we were eager to take it.  The CDC and Fauci said the virus was terribly lethal to humans, and that people who were vaccinated couldn't transmit the virus.  Obviously we didn't want to give the virus to the wife or kids so we were happy to take the vaccine.  So it's GOOD that biden ordered everyone to take vaccine.  It's safe, and effective.  It was probably dangerous when Trump was president, but the biden administration solved the problems, so now it's safe."

(3): So were y'all eager to get your two-year-old grandchild jabbed too?  Didn't you know that the chances of a child under 15 dying from covid was 0.0001 percent?

"Never heard that.  Fauci said kids needed to be vaccinated, so we did as he said.  He's the head of a big division of the NIH, so he would never lie."

(4): So I guess you believe the Russians blew up their own North Sea gas pipelines too, right?

"Of course.  President Biden said so.  Why would he lie?"

(5): Ah.  So when every Mainstream Media outlet said the Chyna virus could not possibly have been modified in a Chinese lab to make the harmless bat virus lethal to humans, you believed that too, right?

"Of course.  The Media said Fauci was the top viral researcher and scientist in the United States, and he said the virus could not possibly have been modified in a Chinese lab.  Surely you don't claim to know something the top researcher in the U.S. doesn't, do ya?  That's impossible.  Hes the head of a major government agency, which means he's really smart, and would never lie.  You're just an ordinary guy.  Why should anyone believe you over a top researcher like Fauci?  Fauci wouldn't lie."

(6): How about our open southern border?  Surely you've seen dozens of videos of hundreds of people illegally crossing the river into the U.S.  Are you okay with that?

"I watch MSNBC and CNN, and haven't seen any such videos.  I think you're just making that up.  The notion of  'open borders' is just a scare story.  Russian disinformation.  The president's hand-picked head of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, has been on TV dozens of times assuring Americans that the southern border is totally secure!  If that wasn't true, our Media would never have let him get away with saying that!  So there ya go."

(7): Ah.  Okay, what do you think about all the fentanyl being smuggled into the U.S. by illegals?

"That's just a 'right-wing scare story' created by people who hate immigrants.  If fentanyl coming across the border was a real problem the Media would tell us.  Cuz they're in the business of 'news,' eh?  If something so dangerous was really happening, obviously the Media would tell us."

(8): Ah.  What do you think about inflation?

"Not a problem.  Prices go up, but not because of any government policies."

(9): So do you think the "velocity theory of money" isn't valid?

"Never heard of it.  The only thing they taught us in college was Keynesianism."

(10): Okay.  Do you think it was a good idea for Biden to sell half of our strategic petroleum reserve?

"That's Russian disinformation.  If the administration had done that, the Media would have mentioned it.  They didn't, so it didn't happen.  And even if it had, the Media say the U.S. doesn't need oil, gas or coal, because most of our energy needs are being supplied by clean wind, solar and hydroelectricity.  And that's good, because fossil fuels cause Global Warming climate change.  The administration says all scientists agree that Global Warming climate change is the most dire problem we've ever faced.  They call it an 'existential problem'."  And the Media agree.  So getting rid of "fossil fuels" is good.

(11): Ah.  What have you heard about a drug called ivermectin?

"Not approved for human use.  Our FDA said it's only approved to kill worms in horses and cows.  Definitely not approved for human use!  Some loonies claimed it would cure covid.  Can you imagine?  Very dangerous.  Only crazy people think it's safe for humans!"

(12): Ah.  So if I told you that not only had it been approved by your FDA, but they approved it for human use way back in 1983, and that it's been taken by literally a billion people since then, and that your faaabulous CDC actually published what it says is the recommended dose for humans, what would you think?

"Russian disinformation.'"  [Spoiler: all of the above is totally true.]

(13): Ah.  Have you heard anything about hundreds of young, fit athletes dropping dead in the middle of a televised soccer game? 

"That's another scare story.  Sadly, fit young people have always dropped dead at all ages.  This isn't new or alarming.  No more people are dying young now than at any time before.  We know that because if that were true, the CDC would have investigated to find the cause."

Uh...sure.  The CDC.  Yeah.  Cuz since the CDC had a HUGE role in claiming covid was far more deadly than the flu, and that the only way to avoid dying was to take the jab, they could certainly be trusted to determine whether the jab was causing stringy blood clots two feet long, pulled from arteries of people being embalmed, right?  (14): Do you think clots like that are normal?

"Experts say long, stringy blood clots are very common in the blood vessels after death. Besides, embalmers aren't doctors, so how can anyone trust them to recognize whether a given blood clot was normal?   They just don't have enough experience to know whether something is unusual.  In fact experts have found that such clots are more likely cause by Covid, not the vaccine.  So being vaccinated reduces your chance of getting blood clots!"

(15): Have you heard a story about emails and pic found on a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden?

"Ah yes.  That was very quickly proven to be Russian disinformation.  In fact the NY Times and Washington Post both reported knowing that within a day of that fake story breaking.  Six weeks before the election the FBI warned Facebook and pre-Musk Twitter that they expected a piece of Russian disinformation to drop before the election, probably about a biden family member, and warning the social media companies to prevent the story from "trending."  Every U.S. intel agency said it was Russian disinformation.  In fact 51 former U.S. intel officers signed a letter saying so.  In fact we only heard about the laptop because of the letter debunking that story.  So rumors about the son of our totally honest president taking bribes from Chyna are "Russian disinformation."

(16):  Ah.  So if I told you that six months after the 2020 election the Washington Post--which had initially, instantly, with no research simply parroted the FBI claims that the laptop was fake--finally hired experts to check the hidden codes that authenticate emails, and confirmed all the emails were authentic, what would you say?

"Obviously Russian disinformation. "

I could go on and on, but you get the picture.  My friends are all intelligent, educated guys, but they believe everything the regime and the Mainstream Media tell them.  From what I can gather, they get all their information from the Mainstream Media, with no contradicting inputs.  In that case, believing what you hear and read is understandable.  And it doesn't occur to them to think the regime or the Democrat party might lie, or that the Mainstream Media might be lying to help the Democrats.

To these intelligent, educated, successful men any story that contradicts whatever the biden/harris regime or the Media says must--by definition--be "Russian disinformation."  It's an unbreakable defense to wave away any contradictory information without examining it.

I've tried pointing out that when the only "newz" one gets is from the Mainstream Media, you can't be surprised if that source shades the truth--or even outright lies.  They are convinced--if only unconsciously--that if BOTH the regime and the Mainstream Media say something, it must be true.  It follows that anything that contradicts those so-called "truths" must be a lie--likely "Russian disinformation."

By contrast, they totally believe the Democrat Narrative--endlessly echoed by the Media for four years--that the only reason Trump won in 2016 was because he "colluded with Russia" to steal the 2016 election from Hilliary.  But if you ask 'em why Putin would help elect the pro-military Trump instead of the utterly corrupt, anti-military, pro-socialist Hilliary, no answer.

Again, my friends are all intelligent, college-educated Americans.  But like most Americans, if both the government and the Media say something, they believe it.  Totally predictable and understandable.

And it's equally understandable that they don't believe my sources.  ("How can you claim you're right and Fauci is lying?).  So one would expect they'd be eager to examine the claims they dispute, to find the alleged errors.  But they don't seem to want to consider anything that contradicts their worldview.  Anything that contradicts the Media is simply dismissed as "disinformation."

And I totally understand that: to even consider that "your" government may be lying to you about dozens of major things--and in a way that will cause you great harm--is EXTREMELY distressing.  (Examples: "The government can print as much money as it likes, without increasing inflation."  "Open borders are good for our society!"  "Trans women ARE women."  "Safe, and effective!")

They believe all the Narratives.

Obviously not all beliefs in things that aren't true are harmful:  Parents tell their kids about the tooth fairy, Santa Claus, the Easter bunny.  Harmless.  But some false beliefs set the believer up for very unpleasant outcomes.  If a majority of Americans believe things that are both erroneous AND harmful, our nation is almost certainly near its end--and deserves to be.

If my smart, well-educated, successful friends totally believe the Media's and regime's lies, it seems unlikely that Americans who lack the intelligence, education and access to information sources not controlled by the government or Mainstream Media, could have a better handle on what's happening. 

So...if you wanna have some fun, print the 16 questions/issues above, and ask friends or parents those questions, and either record or write down their answers.  Chances are good that over 80% of the answers you get will match the ones given by my friends.

Democrat: "SEE?!  Dat means our answers are true, and your claims are false!"