This is what I mean .... the choice is either an average politician or an old wing nut orange man ... but the choices are so difficult for Americans to decide that many choose neither and never think that they are instead paving the way for the wannabe fascist.

I can't believe that the fate of the world hinges on the deranged decisions of a completely confused people. As much as I don't want to admit that America has so much influence, they do have literal control over much of the world and they do have the largest most powerful military at the moment. So whoever gets to be leader will set the stage for the stability or instability of the world in the next few years. And it's all riding on ill informed choices of a very ill informed population.

don't forget the christian second coming accelerationist folk who just want to see it all burn because they're embarrassed they've fucked up too many predictions.

They wish to literally embody the "all it takes for evil to prosper.." axiom

My parents have been brainwashed into not believing any news that shows Trump in a bad light. When I show them video of one of his rants, or his dancing, or him giving a microphone a happy ending, they think I'm gullible and am falling for doctored video.

When people have been trained not to trust legitimate news sources, it's really, really hard to convince them to come back to reality because, in their eyes, we're the brainwashed ones.

Disagree. Americans are too comfortable to do much of anything for themselves. The rise of centrism is basically being OK with whatever, and calling that clever.