For most of my life, I’ve been a staunch critic of the reigning neoliberal establishment. As far back as my teens, I’ve never been one to stay quiet about the problems I’ve noticed in the world. When I was a Junior in high school, I got into a long and heated debate with my history teacher for arguing that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was unjustified, unnecessary, and short-sighted. He was adamantly pro-war, as were most of my classmates — while opposition to the Iraq War is widespread now, it’s easy to forget how many people wholeheartedly supported the invasion back in 2003. The country was still caught up in post-9/11 patriotic fervor, and the government still had the trust of not only conservatives, but moderates and liberals and independents as well.
Today, patriotic fervor remains high among some conservatives, though it’s largely subsided for the rest of the population. But trust in the government is at close to an all-time low among all Americans, regardless of political affiliation or patriotism. 61% of Americans disapprove of how the nation is being governed, 75% of Americans disapprove of Congress, and only 18% of Americans believe they can trust the government to do what’s right. Likewise, trust in the media has sharply declined over the past decade, with 45% of Americans saying that they have no trust in television news. On average, Americans mistrust 44% of the news they hear on television, on the radio, and in newspapers, and 64% of the news they hear…
