I just love this guy more and more over the years -- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Kareem's headline,"Don't Just Blame Donald Trump, Blame Reality TV Too" is a bit weak but his common sense take on the rejection of reason and intellectualism is very well grounded in social science. Don't count on this turning around any time soon in a world awash with a 24/7 news cycle filtered through a siloed social media filters that help us all emotionally react to the news, feel the self righteousness or the hate that propels our gut to choose a side on every issue.

Here's how: A recent meme circulating on Facebook is a photograph of an amputee soldier in a wheelchair saluting — accompanied by the outraged message that Facebook had banned the photo as "offensive." More than 1.25 million people had viewed the photo, and there were many angry comments about patriotism, fake news, liberals, etc. 

None of it was true. 

Ten seconds on the internet would have proved that, but so many people are imprisoned by their confirmation bias that they can be led around by the "heart" by everyone from politicians to Russian trolls. Research, even for 10 seconds, is for losers who need evidence before being outraged. The cellphone is the greatest single educational tool in the history of the world, yet many don't use it to get smart, only to justify calling others dumb.

I wish this were going to get better but what's in store for our world looks down right dystopian. Just drink you Gatorade and don't ask stupid questions.

https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/52736-dont-just-blame-donald-trump-blame-reality-tv-too