[Magnatron]

Sometimes it seems the media is watching an entirely different channel than the rest of the country...

[yesthatjallen]

To explain to themselves why other people don't think like they do they have to come up with theories and create narratives that fit their personal world-view.

Also, it's a crowded opinion field out there and to get noticed you have to come up with new and provocative ideas to get a book deal or an article published in The Atlantic, Salon, Esquire etc.

Then the self-proclaimed intellectual class go to their cocktail parties and soirees and discuss the latest book or article which sparks "buzz" among the so-called influential class who are so much smarter than us because they read The Atlantic, Salon, and Esquire.

It's all nothing but outlandish provocative ideas to get noticed which sustains self-proclaimed intellectuals who believe everything they read in The Atlantic, Salon, and Esquire because they get to feel intellectually superior to the ignorant rubes who don't read The Atlantic, Salon, and Esquire.

It all amounts to "intellectual" masturbation.