(January 23, 2018 at 2:55 pm)Tiberius Wrote: People should care about Russia, which is why the media continue to report on it. If the media just reported on things that people cared about, we'd be reading fluff stories everywhere.
The mere possibility that a foreign power, and a historic adversary at that, could have possibly interfered with our election process is bad for our democracy.
If the CNN type media reported on it, rather than tried to shape stories that implied things democrats wanted to hear, I think people would be less resistant to it. Unfortunately, that's not how for profit news rolls. Who wants to read about 'inconsequential attempts to change a few voters minds' when you can read "AMERICAN ELECTION UNDER SIEGE BY RUSSIAN INFLUENCERS!!"
But what we seem to have that's tangible is Russia posted a bunch of fake shit on Facebook and Twitter. So for a year, people have been hearing "OUR DEMOCRACY IS UNDER ATTACK! WHO KNEW WHAT!?!?!?!?" And what we've seen is a picture of Jesus arm wrestling the Devil in a Facebook Meme. It's hard to reconcile the two things.
If you don't connect the hysteria of the initial claim with something more significant, people are going to lose faith in the people acting hysterical.