If there is any one thing that strikes me looking back at this calamitous and difficult year it is that we are experiencing a deep crisis of trust. Who can we believe? Who is telling the truth? On whom we can rely for accurate information?
It is into this void that a flood of conspiracy theories has rushed. And it is this crisis of trust that opens the door wide for all kinds of deception.
After all, if we completely write off certain sources of information and we immediately prejudge those who differ with us, we make ourselves totally vulnerable. Isn’t that what cult members do?
On the one hand, the mainstream, left-leaning media has earned our scorn, not simply for presenting a biased view of the news but for actually censoring news for partisan political purposes. This is not just bad reporting, this is misreporting.
And what about the anonymous stories with unprovable accusations, which then spread like a plague online? How can we trust what these news sources say?
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