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I'm gonna get a little self congratulatory about it. During Covid, I was watching the news coming out of China, and somewhat ahead of the curve on explaining to people that it was going to be a huge deal, even down to the specifics of we're going to need to stay home for a while but it won't be an apocalypse, we want to stock up on masks, things like that. One of my friends actually told me I seemed like I had the inside track on it. If I was just watching CNN for what was going to happen I would have been absolutely an idiot about it... I actually remember when the news and CDC was telling people masks didn't work, and me telling someone "This might sound a little weird, but I actually don't think that's true." And then explaining why.

I've known people who've worked for presidential candidates and spent some amount of time with them. The world is not as isolated and theoretical as you're making it sound. I get what you're saying, but there's a whole world of experience beyond just what happens on the screen. If you're purely in the consumer mode then yes. If you're active in the actual events then you start to learn what is worth listening to and see what seems well-founded in terms of how things actually play out.

That's why abortion is a good touchstone. It's a lot of Republicans' first harsh wake up call to the idea that the news and how things are packaged has been lying to them all this time. I've been wrong about things plenty of time, but IDK why you would assume my only experience with the world is just what I'm observing on the screen.