Mark Smith: "It took years of deliberate effort by vested interests to create this “proudly ignorant populism,” as someone called it, know-nothing voters who are easily led by the nose, incapable of distinguishing lies from truth, or an honest person from a crook. Easily duped, they can be depended on to act against their own self-interest again and again. Throw into the mix racism, misogyny, hatred of immigrants, gays, and other minorities, the dumbing down of the population by inadequate education, suspicion of learning, rejection of science and history, and dozens of other things like guns and violence, and you have the kind of environment in which people chose their next president...To mislead one’s fellow citizens on such a vast scale is evil."
Rachel Lavine: I keep thinking this is the failure of public schools as much as anything - the commentary is so appalling, putting aside it's ugliness, so many of the comments are basically a repetition of: you lie! they lie! everyone lies! So truth, not to mention a sense of responsibility for others, doesn't matter. It's like the visigoths have arrived.
