"you can make *ignorant* people believe just about any message if you deliver it a certain way and often enough."
I don't want to be 'that guy' but even smart and well informed people can be manipulated with the right techniques. Anyone can be manipulated and none of us should ever think we are immune. We're all human.
Furthermore the belief that I, a smart and well informed person, am immune to manipulation is a vulnerability those seeking to manipulate you can exploit.
You're right of course. We're all susceptible. I still maintain that ignorance is the dry kindling to misinformation's fire, while a well-educated populace is more like damp log.
While I agree that everyone can be manipulated and we should never consider us immune to manipulation, I would still argue that certain groups of people are more easily manipulated.
I doubt anyone thinks that, expect that some people who say they are patriots believe that Pelosi is acting detrimentally when it comes to the common good in America. That is a reasonable criticism in general. Politics involves a great deal of claiming that someone else’s policies are detrimental. No one would claim Putin is “more aligned”, only perhaps less of a danger. They may also believe that Putin is at least instrumentally better for Russia than Pelosi is due America.
