Willful ignorance is an easy trap to fall into

There is a system used by all autocrats to seize and keep power. The typical coup was violent and often involved the military. That is not any longer true for the most part. Since at least Hitler and even before it has started by maligning the media and telling people the same lies repeatedly until they are hypnotized, brainwashed, and or convinced that the "alternate reality" is the real one.

We used to say a well-informed client is our best customer. I forget whom I stole that line from but it was true then and it is still true today. To paraphrase one might say a well-informed electorate comprises the nation's most intelligent patriots. Becoming well-informed requires work. One needs to do the research, consult competing sources, and question everything. If you get all of your news and information only from sources that align with your prejudices, beliefs, and ideology, you make yourself vulnerable to disinformation, propaganda, and hyperbole.

It is an easy trap to fall into. One might describe it as willful ignorance used to ignore anything that challenges our preconceived ideas of how we wish reality were structured. Some use it to avoid conflict, some to avoid responsibility, and some to assuage their fear of this or that. The failure to seek out the truth and to demand it from others has only two possible outcomes. You either become an irrelevance or find yourself being led by the nose to attack the Capitol.

DAN CREAMER

Sandpoint