A maddening, terrifying thing about our current state of affairs is that we have a mainstream media wholly unprepared and unwilling to tell Americans what they need to be hearing. So many people just watch the evening news and get a breezy normalization of a state of emergency.
Every network nightly news broadcast should begin with "This is not normal. This is not okay. This is not 'politics as usual.' This is not partisan. This is a crisis." But instead, it's "The President drew criticism today for..." or "Trump's unconventional comments today..."
"While some Democrats have attacked the so-called 'concentration camps' as 'cruel,' Republicans insist it is a legal, necessary measure to prevent illegal immigration. What do you think? Leave us a note on our Facebook page. We'll be right back with sports!" And the world burns. 
There's a reason NBC or CBS can't just say it like it is. They have corporate owners, and corporations are insidiously intertwined with politics. Imagine the blowback if the evening news upset the shareholders by seeming too "partisan" by telling people how fucked we really are.
I don't mean this in an Alex Jones "the media is lying to you!" conspiratorial gibberish way. I mean that following rational, informed political journalists, scientists, activists on Twitter makes you 10x more informed than my Mom who watches the news every night. That's fucked.
The news isn't "lying to you." It's using kid-gloves to gently serve you the most bite-sized saccharine-glazed cozy macaroon of the truth that won't upset its owners or sponsors. That sort of passably works when things are normal. But right now, it's monstrously irresponsible.
There's no focus group data for how well "an ongoing attack on the foundations of democracy from within our very own political institutions" sells on primetime. "Civilization will collapse within our lifetime if we don't act now" is a bad lead-in to Monday Night Football.
Corporate greed was so confident in the reliability of relative normalcy that it set a hell of a trap for us when suddenly all the rules changed.
Support local journalism. Support independent journalists. Support activists. Support science. Support art. Support everyone who's on the ground searching for or screaming about the truth, or trying to change things. All those little small pieces are more important than ever. /
