Don't forget the 95% positive, worshipful media.
I understand, but I figured out on my own that the media was a pack of liars. It was a simple process of comparing what the media said to accounts of what actually happened after the fact. It was not rocket science coming to that conclusion.
Then Limbaugh, when he arose on the scene, confirmed what I had been thinking.
Unfortunately, contributing to the delusion is a significant portion of the public being intellectually lazy, and most of the rest being willfully stupid.
But there is no real valid reason for their ignorance. They appear to be content to digest their steady diet of informational garbage.