To be honest, i am not really sure we know (or will ever know) exactly what is to blame. People just make mistakes. For example, someone we both know with a Ph.D. and probably the highest level of media literacy possible tweeted out a link to a documentary that was based on junk science. He watched the whole thing and didn’t think to question any of it. We all do it – I’m not even sure if there really is a thing as being media literate at all sometimes.

Other times, I think a lot of people really just don’t know the regional differences in how various sociocultural groupings approach media. For example, when Trump started talking about arming teachers, many prominent national figures responded to critiques by saying “don’t respond to his idea at all. It will never happen – it is just a crazy idea he has.” Those of us in Texas had to point out it was already law here, with hundreds of teachers already trained and carrying guns in classes. The school district next to my son’s even places signs out front about it, and people in our school district want to do the same.

Or, when I critiqued Mike’s Three Acts based on people that have a different view of what counts as a “reliable source”, he responded by saying that he doesn’t have time for extremists that think Southern Poverty Law Center is fake news and Brietbart is real news. Trouble is – those people are slight majority here in Texas. I can’t ignore those people here because they are my neighbors, my politicians, my local and state leaders. I don’t know if people from more liberal northern states realize how wide spread and ingrained this mindset is, and how evangelical bookstores and megachurches influencing millions of people have crafted a different reality for people. They have an entire thriving ecosystem of their own news sources, their own publishers, their own movies, their own music, their own TV stations all pushing this idea of a liberal world order trying to take away their faith. I don’t think people know that an insane man named Larry Norman (called the godfather of Christian rock) was talking and singing about ideas in the 1960s and 70s that have been coming out of Trump’s mouth this year. I’m just not sure media literacy is really the problem from what I have seen.