Closeted socialist here. I work in an extremely remote 24/7 process industry. They play Newsmax on the TVs in the chow hall and the only time they don't is when they are replacing tvs. EVERYONE here is a degree of an alt righter. Some were at J6. Some have "Alex Jones was right" on their thermos'. I honestly believe some would kill me if I said I've read Marx. Not a single one of them could accurately define a political, economic, or social system without distracting with tropes, jingoistic rhetoric, or whataboutisms. Academic education is brainwashing. Christianity is a brand-name but you don't have to read the Bible to be a christian. I made the mistake of expressing my disappointment of Trump because of what he has said about veterans. I was mocked for believing propaganda and over time I have become known as "the liberal". That was all it took.

It's frustrating, and I daily struggle with unchecked bigotry. But most people here do not wake up and choose to be racist or evil. They are doing what their wildly misled moral compass is telling them to be righteous. In their eyes, the pandering of the media that we see is absolute and total corruption to them. The media does lie, they have lied. Most of them couch it In ignorance and a whispered redaction, but that's all it took. If they can lie about anything, then they must be lying about the unflattering things. There's a bit of head-in-the-sand and delusion, but in their eyes the rape, the lawsuits, the theft from taxpayers, all of it is exactly what they would say if they were trying to make him look bad. That's enough for them.

I honestly don't blame them. They have fallen for grifts, lies, and propaganda that goes back at least 200 years.