"[W]e should spend more time considering the real possibility that every problem we face will get much worse than we ever imagined."

"The coronavirus is like a heat-seeking missile designed to frustrate progress in almost every corner of society, from politics to the economy to the environment.... In a book published more than a decade ago, I argued that the internet might lead to a choose-your-own-facts world in which different segments of society believe in different versions of reality. The Trump era, and now the coronavirus, has confirmed this grim prediction. That’s because the pandemic actually has created different political realities. The coronavirus has hit dense, racially diverse Democratic urban strongholds like New York much harder than sparsely populated rural areas, which lean strongly to the G.O.P.... The virus’s economic effects will only create further inequality and division.... The virus-induced recession could further destroy the news industry and dramatically reduce the number of working journalists in the country, our last defense against misinformation.... Let us not squander another crisis. We need to take a long, hard look at all the ways the pandemic can push this little planet of ours to further ruin — and then work like crazy, together, to stave off the coming hell."

From "The Worst Is Yet to Come/The coronavirus and our disastrous national response to it has smashed optimists like me in the head" by Farhad Manjoo (NYT).

I don't think it's "the number of working journalists" in the country that is "our last defense against misinformation." You can have a huge number, but if they're all bad, and they're all participating in misinformation, they're no defense at all.

The last defense against misinformation is your own mind.