It's all fun and games until the planet gets hurt

Making fun of the sort of people who absolutely know Obama is a Kenyan muslim socialist, Vince Foster was murdered, global warming is a hoax, etc. is an amusing pastime.  Then, you wake up one morning and realize some 30-40% of Americans believe these tropes and are willing to bet the nation's future on them.  Donald Trump is the pentultimate creation of the conspiracy peddling fifth estate of alternative social websites and right wing media outlets like Faux News.  These "truthy" sources have blurred the line between fact and fantasy to the extent many people have turned against mainstream papers and other sources which traffic in inconvenient facts which contradict the conspiracy theories which seem to comfort so many of our neighbors.  I guess it is easier to believe in UN black helicopters and "false flag" operations that explain why things are not the same as they were in some golden yesterday when white Americans held all the world in their hands and everyone else knew their place.  Yes, Trump will almost certainly lose this election, but the damage he has done to our polity is incalculable.  His politics will almost surely lead to a person who will plausibly explain how we will  make America great again.  May the Flying Spaghetti Monster have mercy on us all.