The fired IRS worker thought Trump had “business acumen” because he was in an info cocoon. He probably watched The Apprentice and believed it was reality not just a fictionalized reality tv show. He was likely well situated enough during the first Trump term to not pay much attention to politics.
Many people, even government workers, ignore politics. I know from having offered voter registration for several years as a non-political job duty, that the chief reasons people gave for not registering to vote is that they either felt that no politicians of any party represented their interests, or they thought politics was too harsh and nasty and would require more emotional and mental energy than they could invest. Of course I once read that Putin’s paid trolls main objective was to make political discussions “so stinky” no normal person would want to engage, to get people to disengage entirely.
This business acumen stuff with he IRS worker is just totally demonstrative of the info cocoons everyone lives in these days, where people often have no idea of any reality outside of their narrow media and entertainment consumption. This is true even when people try not to be like this, and know the problem exists. All of us are subject to it. I notice this all the time because I just happen to be at the intersection, existing myself in a few different silos, and have the benefit of people in other silos telling me specifically information they’re getting in their scenes. It’s very obvious to me sometimes when people can’t understand why someone else doesn’t know about something. For example, if someone didn’t know about something being published – “If they searched they would’ve found it!” they say. But the fact is that lots of times people don’t even know what to search for, and even if they were searching, SEO bastardization and the enshittification of search engines means that people may not find things even when diligently searching. Going to the internet via Google (or good gravy, please don’t — some chatbot) is NOT the same thing as looking something up at a library, where the information has been collected and well organized for utilization without a profit motive.
I’m not minimizing the frustration involved in this situation. It’s very easy to ascribe dishonesty or even malice to a lot of this. And there are people who are being dishonest. It’s definitely maddening that anyone could be so completely in the dark about things that seem obvious. I complain all the time about knowing there’s so many conservatives that utilize all sorts of public benefits but have no idea they’re the maligned “moochers and takers” because they join in on the demonization and have all sorts of rationalizations about why it doesn’t ever apply to them.
This is the reality we’re in, and it’s dangerous. And it’s better to recognize it’s happening at least.
People are not even talking about the same things and this is dangerous. I don’t think most people realize that many times we think we’re talking about the same thing, but in fact, we’re not actually on the same page with the underlying premise or even basic facts. Chloe Humbert Feb 14, 2025