I can only add my agreement with what others have said so well (underlined!): We need to take our news from multiple sources—not from social media—and constantly evaluate the credibility of those sources or of anyone’s opinions based on what facts they offer as support, what experience they bring to their judgment, what personal stake may be involved, and the quality of their reasoning. That last is so important and not always taught in school: recognizing personal attacks on the speaker to dismiss what they have to say, or broad, unsupported generalizations including stereotypes as well as “everybody knows..,” or misrepresenting and exaggerating counter arguments, etc. We need to question what people tell us too (“Where did you hear that?” or “What makes you think so?”)—-not as a challenge, but as a way of setting a tone of inquiry and reason in a conversation, opening it up to dialogue rather than shutting it down by creating an argument. The age of television and the internet has made it easier in many ways to get information but also easier to get caught in a bubble of confirmation bias. That bubble of limited information, filtered by bias, is the basis for brainwashing.
Adding to that tendency, most areas in the country no longer have more than one independent local newspaper or TV station (and many have none). This makes it easier for media conglomerates to control information. Don’t take my word for it: google it.
Needless to say, the movement toward book banning in school and public libraries is a symptom of the danger we are facing. Parents and politicians should be more concerned about teaching kids how to think than what to think, while setting a good example.