The Atlantic magazine has a cover that purports to explain inside "How America went haywire." The very, very, very long cover story, titled "How America went crazy," highlights a variety of false beliefs that bedevil the sort of people who don't read The Atlantic.  For example: A third of us believe not only that global warming is no big deal but that it's a hoax perpetrated by scientists, the government, and journalists. A third believe that our earliest ancestors were humans just like us; that the government has, in league with the pharmaceutical industry, hidden evidence of natural cancer cures; that extraterrestrials have visited or are visiting Earth. Almost a quarter believe that vaccines cause autism, and that Donald Trump won the popular vote in 2016. Kurt Andersen blames Rush Limbaugh for introducing an "alternative reality," as if the media Rush critiqued were objective reality and El Rushbo a...(Read Full Post)