One unexpected result of the 2016 presidential election ...

[Willie Pep]

10. There are some good alternative journalists out there.

But you have to critically look at them too, just like the establishment media which has its own biases. I don't think the problem is with legitimate alternative journalists but with the crackpot conspiracy theorists and fake news sites. There is still a world of difference between Naked Capitalism and Alex Jones, just to use those sources as examples. Unfortunately some people on the Left allowed their hatred of Clinton and the centrist Democrats to cloud their minds and they ended up believing any anti-Hillary story that came down the pike even if it was nonsense from right-wing conspiracy theory websites.

Trust in major institutions is weakening and people seem more susceptible to sensationalism and conspiracy theories. I sympathize with this way of thinking to a certain extent. Blame for the Iraq War and the financial crisis, just to name two relatively recent disasters, falls squarely on establishment shoulders. But some people are making the mistake of throwing out the baby with the bathwater by refusing to trust anything that comes from establishment sources. It is a symptom of the creeping nihilism that I see in this country these days. I hear a lot of people say stuff like "everybody is crooked except (insert Internet guru of choice)" and if you disagree with them you are a "shill."