This article makes a valid point and the author is much more perceptive than the average person for noticing it.

I know people who I thought were independent thinkers basically repeat media narratives whilst claiming that "I looked at all the facts and came up with my own opinion." But it was very clear that they had not looked at all the facts and only consumed news from specific mainstream media sources.

One case I remember very clearly concerns Trump Derangement Syndome; what was surprising was that when I asked this person I know "Why do you say Trump is misogynistic?" they pointed out the incident from 2016 elections when Trump made that dirty comment about "Grab them by the ..." But the irony is that the person I was taking to had said worse, mysogynistic jokes in the past! And they definitely don't consider themselves a mysogynist... And I don't either. Sometimes people say things for shock value but they don't believe them. It matters a lot if something is a one-off or if it's a pattern. You can't say someone's is anything based on something they said a couple of times; someone who is truly a mysogynist or a racist or an elitist or whatever would keep coming back to the same ideas over and over. If someone says something or does something offputting once a year, it's kind of insane to assign a label to the person based on it... As if that one thing they almost never say is part of their identity.

The media and films are are really good at selectively showing us a few pieces out of context and convincing us that it's a pattern of behavior and fully characterizes the person. Just pick the 10 worst things a person said in the course of a year on their worst days and you can make them look like the devil.

> One case I remember very clearly concerns Trump Derangement Syndome

The fact that you consider that to be a real thing gives me massive fremdschämen.

Kia kaha, and good luck buddy.