Because you have Google. I suspect most people know their star sign. (The Chinese Zodiac is something different.) I don’t believe in astrology, but it’s certainly common enough that it seems difficult to avoid learning at some point. If not, you can find out in 30 seconds.

All it is is an abstraction to make it slightly harder for bad actors and computer programs, not an endorsement of astrology.

I’m not sure a good argument can be made. Being at a polling place doesn’t say who you’re voting for. I don’t see the danger.

Having two different realities is not good. I’m not sure what is to be done about it though. Some people will always choose to believe the easy lie over the difficult truth.

Ignoring Fox and the crazies for a moment, how often have mainstream networks given equal time to climate change deniers and actual scientists, pretending there was a debate where there wasn’t one.

I want to push back a little on “we all agreed on what was and what was not reality.” When there were three TV stations, did any of them highlight police brutality? Overincarceration? The military industrial complex? Anything that would hurt their sponsor’s bottom lines?

The news networks we have today are all owned by large media conglomerates. They range from pro-corporate to pro-fascist. I’m glad that there are enough independent voices that we can hear from people who don’t profit off of the status quo. It’s unfortunate that right wing media is so prevalent and well funded, but if there is an answer to that, it’s not going back to the days when Walter Cronkite, CBS, and Gulf+Western would tell us “That’s the way it is”.