the distinction between opinion pieces and news.

In fairness, media consolidation, rampant native advertising, and deluges of "infotainment" have made this distinction increasingly blurry.

I don’t know what to do about it, either, as people have shown they will always vote for the instant gratification of it

A lot of the information is pure junk, consumed entirely for recreation. What's to be done with people who watch the equivalent of telanovellas labeled as Breaking News?

Even when information is ostensibly useful, there's the endless debate of what to do with it.

I see this Shepherd's Tone coverage of education and intelligence, as though highly educated and deeply curious people had some sort of profound influence over the world twenty years ago that we've lost today.

If anything, the endless "everyone is getting stupider (except you, sweet beautiful reader)" seems to play directly into the narrative that democracy doesn't work and submission to authority is the logical choice.