This is a year old. I’m venting here more than anything.
I went to a community dinner and saw a conservative friend of a friend. I tried to talk around the issue of the political divide and he brought up this “YouTube” he had seen. BTW, this is an old, very accomplished, smart person. He said he saw Nancy Pelosi explaining how she (she, as if she was directing her party) had this system where they would create fake news, get it published, then point to it and claim that’s published therefore plausible. I kind of remembered it, but I didn’t say anything him, it was a social setting. I easily googled it and debunked during my morning coffee. She was accusing Republicans of doing it, not suggesting Democrats should do it.
It is incredibly frustrating to talk to trolls, online or in person, people that can’t articulate methodology, people who don’t know the word “epistemology”, but at least you know you are talking to people who being influenced, they aren’t the influencers. But when you have exactly the same kinds of evidence brought up by people with degrees, respect, and an above average vocabulary, that gets depressing.