...so as to break down the average American's "bubble"...
I hate taking pieces out of context, but I think this is really the crux of the problem. Huge numbers of people have built ideological bubbles for themselves, where they consume information from like-minded sources and discuss issues with like-minded people. This echo chamber effect creates a situation where poor arguments and nonfactual ideas proliferate unchallenged, lest one should be accused of being an enemy of the group. This leads to a situation ultimately where large numbers of people embrace dubious notions partially because it is what is believed in their circles, but also to signal adherence to a certain crowd.
Having identified the problem, the question of what to do about it is a much harder one. Cathcon pretty eloquently assaults most of the more feasible suggestions for action in the rest of his post. People in the end will associate with who they want to associate with and think what they want to think.
