All that is true, but the shit he's saying goes through a filter. Not just the filter of Fox News but also the filter of those who disseminate that bullshit.

A very sad and unfortunate fact about most Americans is that they do not read the news and most of their political knowledge comes from their friends and family or communities. The propaganda dissemination models that are currently driving the US toward fascism are reliant on there being a core group of malignants who disseminate the disinformation that they get from Fox, AM radio and elsewhere.

The group whom you're referring to as "conservatives" are demographically the most exposed to right-wing propaganda. The so-called "average" cluster, as revealed by the Cambridge Analytica scandal. This group (originally targeted by Facebook) is particularly sensitive to the message pushed by conservatives ("law and order", "traditional"). But if you look at the messaging that's being used to manipulate them, it's the same stuff that was used to target Germans in the Weimar republic.

Youre right that they should have known better but you cant blame fools for being fools. You can blame the conmen who scam them.

I monitor conservative and nationalist media and they promote lies all day long. The people screaming about whats going on? Completely misrepresented or marginalized in their coverage. Its impossible to have democracy with propaganda networks ranking number 1 in the public consciousness

I've actually heard someone make the argument that it's liberals' fault because they came across as patronizing when telling people, which made them not want to listen. I wish I was kidding.

Just zero personal responsibility.

Many farmers don't read the news and they are prone to getting their info from their friends and communities. For whatever reason, around 30% of the people in those communities are unempathetic deceivers who delight in spreading lies and conspiracy theories. And propaganda networks empower those people.

What are they saying to you now about it?

Let me guess, they're strangely silent.

Many of them are horrible trolls. But then there are those who do not watch the news and get their facts from their local communities, like churches or co-workers. The great majority of people in the US do not have a good news source and have never had a class on media bias. Their whole way of thinking revolves around obeying authority. That environment does not encourage independent thought. And in the presence of 24/7 propaganda networks (Facebook, AM radio, Cable News), there's no way for them to get substantiative information on topics relevant to their daily lives. It's not just right wingers, but also people who would normally be on the left politically, but who are instead overwhelmed with data on how vaccines cause autism, etc... I meet people all the time who are concerned about my media consumption patterns because I do not know about how dangerous GMO is, or how my use of computers is rotting my brain.

The problem with modern information economies is not everyone has access to good information, even people who read the news all day long are exposed to Russian disinfo.

Decades of defunding and stripping down public education is now bearing fruit. We can thank right-wing political interests from both parties for the death of the US educational system. But this is what led to an overreliance on video as a news dissemination platform as people do not read much compared to other economies.

Weimar Germany, by the way, was the best educated country in the world in the thirties. This is what made Nazi propaganda more effective: they were able to use propaganda campaigns to target vulnerable populations. We now know from Cambridge Analytica that this group exists in all cultures. The so-called "Average" group.

Being ignorant doesn't excuse their actions, but it explains their motives in a way that makes them more human. We're all fallible, some of us more so than others. Look at it this way: it's not a crime to be completely cut off from good news sources. There's nothing evil in getting all your news from your church buddies or the people at work. Most news is negative anyway so people naturally avoid it.

The people who control those groups are horrible human beings. Narcissistic, sadistic, nihilists. Unfortunately, liberal democracy does nothing to stop them from spreading their message to vulnerable groups.