Dan Carlin: What happens when a nation’s truth splinters into 1,000 versions | Kmele Foster
Big Think
Jul 9, 2026
Dan Carlin and Kmele Foster argue that the internet has shattered the 'shared truth' once maintained by media gatekeepers, replacing it with thousands of fragmented realities. They contend that the current political polarization is a long-term continuum, not a sudden event, and warn that our two-party system lacks the structural incentives to restore constitutional guardrails.
Key insight: The internet acts as a 'wild card' that has fundamentally changed society by allowing bad actors to 'flood the zone with crap,' making it nearly impossible for citizens to agree on basic facts—a prerequisite for a functioning democracy.
