Part of dealing with Trump followers is dealing with the noise of fake news. My stepmother is a typical case. She reads endless clickbait stories, all with inflammatory headlines and tenuous links to facts. I have spent hours pointing out that the news was fake, that the sites were setup to take advantage of people like her, and that they were feeding her racial and political fears. She always had another site, another story, another reason to jump on the Alt-Right racist bandwagon, this despite having a bi-racial grandchild living with her.
“CAN’T TRUST OBAMA,” he writes as the headline, then pauses. His audience hates Obama and loves President-elect Donald Trump, and he wants to capture that disgust and cast it as a drama between good and evil. He resumes typing: “Look At Sick Thing He Just Did To STAB Trump In The Back… .” For the ‘ new yellow journalists,’ opportunity comes in clicks and bucks.
This is clear evidence. Two out-of-work kids turn to writing pap for middle-aged white trump supporters. Despite being confronted with the facts, my stepmom will hold to her “facts” and fight for her “beliefs.” I don’t know what to do. I think of her and others like her as the lost generation.
