The division between those "leading" and those suffering under this leadership is now growing quite explicit. I know many people within the "leading" class, and all of them continue to believe (genuinely) that the CNN version of events represents reality. The term "misinformation" is still effective with these people. If it doesn't agree with the narrative of the "authoritative" sources (Alphabet newses, NYT, WaPo, etc), then it is by definition misinformation, and can be immediately dismissed. These people are well-meaning, but they are completely and absolutely captured by sources of information they have trusted for decades. They simply cannot accept that a lie of the magnitude we are witnessing is possible. It's "too much" for them to believe.

I have discussed on this board that this is a religious conflict, and I keep returning to this. Today it occurs to me that what we are witnessing is similar in character to the Protestant Revolution against the Catholic Church, leading (along with other trends) to the Enlightenment era. Now we have a group - similar to the protestants of that time - saying that the authorities (similar to the Church leadership of that era) are lying and acting in self-interest. The "indulgences" of the Catholic Church are equivalent to the "we don't need to wear masks because we're special" of today.

The people I describe in my first paragraph are terrified to admit that the leaders they have trusted (just as parishioners trusted the leadership of the Catholic Church) are in fact acting in a way that is directly harming them. To accept this is to accept that their entire worldview of what is "safe" and where we seek it has been wrong for many years. This is a sensation that sits super deep within each of our personalities, and to change that sensation is not a trivial task.

Trivial or not, however, the change is beginning to gain strength. We can sense it around us. The demonstrations and resistance are not diminishing; they are accelerating. At some point, even the strongest conviction and loyalty will break in the face of concrete witnessed harms.