Donald Trump .... Cause or effect?Distrusted presidential candidates or eletorate? Finally just three days to the US elections. It has been widely reported in the media that both American presidential presumptive candidates are overwhelmingly distrusted by the American public. Is this a reflection on the candidates or electorate?
For more than two decades, the public has been fed conspiracy theories ad-nausea, 24/7 via multiple media outlets. These theories and conjectures has been booming business to the creators and spin-masters of these theories; who write books, make movies, deliver paid speeches, and be hired as talking-heads on print, radio and TV. Truth-be-told these conspiracy theories are low-cost entertainment from the entire spectrum of print, radio and TV media (who in the process made a ton of money); and are great fund-raising tools for interested organizations, partisans and political parties. Hence these conspiracy theories and extreme partisan rhetoric are not allowed to die. We-the-public as passive listeners enjoy these titillating bits of half-true factoids; proudly remembering them as privy information. Yet, on occasion, the paid pundits (who peddled the theories to major media outlets) have pleaded guilty and gone to jail for presenting false credentials like "worked for the CIA". Now the internet has been a cost-free media for anyone to create, plant and circulate false stories or conclusions; which then are recirculated as genuine articles feeding the growing ignorance even among serious and articulate individuals, spokespersons and political hacks. Likely we the electorate have difficulty separating truth from fiction and in the process distrust ourselves and/or reflect the distrust on others. Which better figure to reflect the distrust than the political candidates? After reveling in conspiracy theories, especially directed against President Obama, some Republican leaders now are openly concerned that Trump is fermenting trickle-down racism and sexism and sanctioning overt bigotry as a further extension of the same conspiracy logic. Tragically with little social support, some "lone-wolf" convert this distrust to utter confusion, hate, fear and anger; and express it at themselves (as suicide) or to folks around them (relatives, friends, strangers), through the barrel of the gun (hate crimes); resulting on average in 90+ gun-homicides a day (2500+ every month). Regards, GL
