I get what you’re saying. And I can’t disagree with your frustration about the Internet or fake news or any of it. And, as far as “history” not being able to save us, probably true … but people will. People always have.

Sometimes even the bully isn’t cured, he’s simply held in check because there’s no longer an avid audience for the only thing he knows how to do.

The Internet has become Society’s 99¢ Store, where everything of real value is being made to conform to a Universal standard. Where an essay by Gandhi, Mother Teresa or Einstein has the same breadth of acceptance as Ole Uncle’s Willie’s journal entry from 1983.

Maybe this is the way it should be. Maybe Uncle Willie was a forward thinker. Or maybe (God, I hate conspiracy theories) there is a plan out there by some, to round off all the edges so nothing ever really stands out.

That leaves us as the final line of defense. Our minds, and eyes and ears, have to be trained to discern horseshit from meaningful discourse. And that all begins with making it a rule to not believe anything the first moment we hear it or read it. Just for a moment. Just longer enough to fact check it against our own database. Compare it to our own sense of right and wrong. Does it sound self-serving? Does it sound too exact, too perfect, too much like yesterday’s stew made to look like Beef Bourguignon?

It’s doable. It takes time out of our day — a few minutes. It’s longer than simply memorizing what some talking head told us. And if in doubt, toss it. There’s plenty more of it on the Web, some of which, is actually correct.