An Epiphany on How We Got Here

I just had a realization of something completely obvious (I can be very, very slow).


Bring me some recipe or restaurant recommendation you got from network TV or some other mainstream channel, and I'll just smirk. I'll assume it's crap. I'm skeptical of mainstream media food reporting, which supplies bland fluff for thoughtless masses. The parties disseminating this information have ulterior motives. They've been bought, or are complacent to the status quo. I disregard such mainstream pablum, sticking with extra-good tips ferreted out by in-the-know types like myself.

This is how the extreme right and left consume news! They're connoisseurs. Mainstream channels are stupid and gullible and malignant and bought out. You can't trust those people. That's not the good stuff. Stick with reliably kindred sources.

Same with science news, medical news, etc.. A vast consensus of experts may agree about climate change or vaccines. But these mainstream channels, representing shady Big Science, Big Medicine, etc., dish out dodgy bla-bla-bla to the thoughtless herds. That's not the extra-good elite information they require, ferreted out by connoisseurs like them.


Extremism is a useful trait for a chowhound. High eagerness benefits trivial pursuits. Less so when it comes to health and public policy, and any important civic sphere requiring serious training to duly comprehend (and radical indoctrination is not a substitute for that "serious training")

I really like being able to occupy the mindset of people who mystify me. I know I'm supposed to scream at them and hate them, but my curiosity wins out. A lot of times, I share my findings under the tag right whispering. These days, with both extremes increasingly engaged and scary, I'm working both ends of the horseshoe pretty evenly (though I'll keep using that tag for now).