The list of falsehoods and conspiracy theories Trump has purveyed is staggering. Trump’s reality is a delusion that is sustained by the rampant propaganda of bizarre right wing websites. Not only is Trump a victim of blatant propaganda, conspiracy theories and lies by consuming and believing in it, he is a purveyor of it.
The delusions of the right wing and misunderstanding of reality is due to a lack of critical thinking and confirmation bias that runs rampant in an increasingly complex world.
It’s easy for non-thinking know nothings to misrepresent things when you don’t understand them. They characterize and frame a straw-man representation, to argue against something ridiculous. This happens constantly, because thinking is very hard in a complex world. Science is beyond simple truths that water freezes at 32 degrees, its beyond what the average person can even fathom, let alone even begin to understand.
So understand it they won’t, because science and knowledge of the world reduces the fiction of religion at a steady pace. Science doesn’t care what you believe.
As far as the propaganda of the right wing, the rise of propagandistic social media and fake news has enraptured and enthralled Trump supporters, because they want to believe it. This causes them to have a conflict with reality. “Alternative facts”, they claim, and conspiracy theories are created to rationalize their idiotic perception of reality based on whatever picture with 4 words that their dimwitted cousin shared on Facebook.
So justifiably “true” news becomes “fake news”. Ignorance becomes strength. They are in too deep and these delusions that millions of illegals voted, that Obama tapped Trump tower, that Hillary sold Uranium to the Russians must persist for them, that science is a fraud, that the media is spreading fake news whenever its negative about Trump, that Obama was born in Kenya, that he’s coming to take your guns, or their entire world view will become shattered. This list of propaganda and fake news that Trump supporters believe is immense, I haven’t met one Trump supporter that didn’t believe in a various lies and propaganda that have plagued the perception of the right wing in the past decade.
Psychology tells us the brain won’t allow that. The decay will be gradual. Until then, there will be serious damage to the United States of America and its institutions of knowledge and justice.