Beyond economic and formal causes, though, I wonder whether the prominence of fake news and junk commentary is a reaction to the sense of powerless that pervades American life.

Faced with the pandemic, inflation, rising crime, plus (according to political inclination) family breakdown, climate change, a looming social credit system, and the risk of a serious constitutional crisis, it’s tempting to avoid things we can’t control and concentrate on those it seems we can. Rather than an assertion of strength, so-called cancel culture is a largely expression of weakness. If we can’t save the world or our country, we can at least demand that people be fired for whatever we consider asinine, offensive, or otherwise obnoxious opinions.

As Postman’s argument indicates, there’s nothing new about fears that Americans have lost the capacity to address or even to perceive the truth about ourselves and our condition. At different times, TV, comic books, movies, and popular music have all been blamed for making us trivial, dumb, and ineffectual. Yet somehow we muddled through the challenges of the 20th century.