“I Don’t Know Who To Believe”

This nice young guy, Mexican American, obviously wasn’t particularly political and didn’t have strong view. But he said something that I think may be at the heart of a lot of what’s going on with people who aren’t as politically engaged as we are: “I just don’t know what to believe. I don’t know who to believe.” In the past past busy people who weren’t particularly interested in politics and current events just didn’t have access to the information beyond their own local paper so they tended to go with whatever the authority figures in their community would tell them. Today, the problem is that there’s too much information and they are presented with a cacophony of opinions and noise. This has happened at the same time as we’ve seen a breakdown in government, religion, academia and even parental authority. Some people, naturally, are then drawn to someone they see as a strongman to fill that void. But I think there are many