I don’t really think it’s their fault either. most people are just regular people, and if everyone in their social group is saying something, it’s unreasonable to expect them to independently verify that particular belief unprompted. The internet exists, so self education and betterment is possible, but telling a dumb person to educate themselves isn’t much better then telling a depressed person to cheer up, or a fat person to eat less. ultimately a society can’t demand more virtue then it’s people possess. Sure, I give some blame to the opportunist jerks who take power where ever they can, but mostly I try to blame the flawed systems that allow those kinds of people to rise to the top in the first place, and I try to be as charitable as possible to those who are just caught up in something ugly.
It doesn’t help that at least outside the US and UK, there aren’t a whole lot of sources that independently verify politicians’ statements in an unbiased way. Politicians lie a bunch, to the point that you can just automatically assume any of their promises won’t happen when elected. A lot of people either don’t know this or just can’t access the sources that would help them find this out.
I don’t really think it’s their fault either. most people are just regular people, and if everyone in their social group is saying something, it’s unreasonable to expect them to independently verify that particular belief unprompted. The internet exists, so self education and betterment is possible, but telling a dumb person to educate themselves isn’t much better then telling a depressed person to cheer up, or a fat person to eat less. ultimately a society can’t demand more virtue then it’s people possess. Sure, I give some blame to the opportunist jerks who take power where ever they can, but mostly I try to blame the flawed systems that allow those kinds of people to rise to the top in the first place, and I try to be as charitable as possible to those who are just caught up in something ugly.
It doesn’t help that at least outside the US and UK, there aren’t a whole lot of sources that independently verify politicians’ statements in an unbiased way. Politicians lie a bunch, to the point that you can just automatically assume any of their promises won’t happen when elected. A lot of people either don’t know this or just can’t access the sources that would help them find this out.