As someone who lives in a VERY red rural state, I just want to say two things:

[misanthrope]

41. I often have a hard time mustering sympathy for the willfully ignorant

It requires little to be informed nowadays. All you need are critical thinking skills, something available to anyone if they choose.

There is nothing special about me. I am an average human. I grew up in a single-parent household. My mom only had a high school diploma in an era where woman had just been given the ability to have their own credit cards. I used public libraries, went to public schools. My college education came piecemeal from money I earned, grants and a couple of loans.

I have spent most of my life impoverished and half of it disabled by inherited disease. Despite all of this, I learned how to glean truth from spin and propaganda, how to see through editorial decisions made with profit margins in mind. I don't find cruelty, dishonesty or selfishness to be empowering. Quite the opposite in that I find it damaging to society and our future as a viable species.

So when I see how adults in today's reality have allowed themselves to be manipulated and deceived, I don't feel sorry for them. I legitimately wonder why they can't see what is so plainly obvious. Or why they don't want to. The answers aren't encouraging.