Ezra Klein remarks on this piece<\/a> about the sheer bullshit that flows in an endless stream from the mouth of Donald Trump and from the pack of professional liars who work for him and for the Right Wing Noise Machine:<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s tactics, in a different context, would be understood as typical authoritarian propaganda \u2014 regimes make aides and supporters propound nonsense as a test of loyalty. The United States isn\u2019t the kind of place where that can work. There\u2019s a free and vibrant press and political debate operating wholly outside the world of Trump\u2019s bullshit.<\/p>\n But by filling the heads of his fans \u2014 and the media outlets they consume \u2014 with a steady diet of bullshit, and by forcing his aides to echo his bullshit in order to win his favor, Trump is nonetheless succeeding in endlessly reinscribing polarization in American politics, corroding America\u2019s governing institutions, and poisoning civic life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The narrative that worked for years (and that I, to my shame, bought) was the notion of the Truth-Telling Reg\u2019lar Folk of Common Sense vs. The Media\u00a0Elite. \u00a0It\u2019s the BS that Trump and his fanbois who blather about Fake News still parrot. \u00a0But the massive lies that Trump and his toadies at FOX, Breitbart, Infowars and other \u201cconservative\u201d sites tell have begun, at long last, to be seen through and trust is eroding with everyone but the most deeply deluded ideologues (who frighteningly still comprise about 33% of the electorate). \u00a0<\/p>\n With the departures of Ailes, and O\u2019Reilly and the defections of people like Megyn Kelly and other victims of the predatory creeps who lied for the Sex Predator-in-Chief (and the looming doom of Sean Hannity, the biggest remaining Lie Vendor at FOX<\/a>) the tottering ruin of conservative media seem to be falling on hard times. \u00a0Breitbart is cratering<\/a>\u00a0(falling from 45th to 281st on Alexa), FOX has fallen behind CNN and MSNBC in ratings and even old warhorses like National Review<\/em> are taking hits:<\/p>\n Other conservative media sites have also experienced declines in traffic in recent months, but none as pronounced as Breitbart\u2019s. According to Alexa data, National Review Online, Infowars.com<\/span>, The Daily Caller, and Drudge Report all saw slumps in their rankings. Over the last week, as Trump was engulfed in the Comey scandal, Fox News\u2019s viewership dropped to third place behind CNN and MSNBC for the first time in 17 years<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Consequently, people who do not turn to media simply and solely to lie to them and tell them what their itching ears want to hear are ceasing to be fooled by the use of the Genetic Fallacy (\u201cWhat? News from outside my Epistemological Bubble? That site you quote is ritually impure! I\u2019m not listening! LALALALALALA!!!!\u201d) and are willing to get their information from a wider assortment of sources and not merely Tribally-Approved apparatchiks. People who get sick of lies want somebody who will not lie through their teeth at them and if that somebody is telling the truth on a ritually impure site then so be it. Cuz Trump and his minions sure as hell are lying:<\/p>\n