How do we get people to agree on a common set of facts?

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

I don't want to get too far into the weeds in the OP, but what's disturbed me more than almost anything else lately is that we can't agree on the basic factual information of current events -- a wide swath of the population in this country, simply, just write off anything they don't like as false, or wrap it in a constructed narrative that suits them. I think it's easy to make fun of the Thomas Jacksons and EnglishPetes of the world, but 40%ish of the country thinks the same way, and if we don't address the underlying problem, it has the potential to continue long after Trump is gone.

So, this is my question for you guys: How do we get America to agree on a common set of facts again?

In theory, with a slow and thorough positive education reform. I don't know what form (or forms) it will or should take, but you need a very thorough understanding of history, human and Western, how a democracy actually works, practicalmath, critical thinking, and how to self-educate.

In practice, I think we're toast. We lack the ability to teach and educate so many, so we're going to get to live out a nasty, chaotic and destructive version of The Marching Morons because there are too many people incapable of empathy for others or of self-awareness, or who cannot think think critically or understand probabilities or consequences. There are too many of them, and they're too entrenched. I think we get either a low-grade civil war, or we split up, or something worse happens.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

The fact of the matter is, at this time, there is actually very, very little that has been established as fact in the Trump/Russia case that actually implicates the President in illegally colluding with the Russian government to undermine the American electoral process.

His son, son-in-law, and campaign manager (who is also a long-time tenant) went to a meeting for the express purposes of getting damaging information on his opponent from a foreign government. Later that evening, Trump himself promised such information was forthcoming. At the very least he is directly implicated in attempting to collude with the Russian government to intervene in the US Presidential election.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Deleted message that was too long and off topic. I'll post it in a different thread.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Time.

The only way a disagreement over basic facts can be resolved is when the two sets of facts collide with reality and one is proven the stronger.

In this country we had a very divisive EU referendum with the winning Leave campaign pushing a set of alternative facts: "£350m for the NHS if we leave", "German industry will lobby to get us a favourable deal", "the EU is on the verge of collapse anyway", "Europe needs us more than we need them because we buy their products", "the ROTW will be lining up to sign trade deals with us" etc. etc., beating out the facts of the Remain campaign. Anyway, this delusion was rampant among government ministers and a small majority of the public and is only beginning to slowly dissipate now that Brexit negotiations have begun and fantasy is crashing into reality.

So with Trump: if he really did collude with Russia, and if he really is as awful and incompetent as Democrats believe, then the only thing they can do is wait for this to be exposed by the investigation and Trump's agenda. Bush won two elections and his incompetence crashing into reality permanently discredited neoconservatives and "compassionate conservatism". So with Trump.

The question is then what will trigger the "I told you so moment" where enough people believe a narrative to the point that there are consequences?

I think people were just tired of Bush when they finally forced him to share power. Maybe because enough people had died in Loiusiana and Iraq and that those fence splitters who went to Bush in 04 were done "giving hom a chance" with his war. The last straw was clearly when it was found out that enough people couldn't pay their bills so that they had to fire millions of people. Then, instead of the 45% who never believed him and the 3% that learned quickly knowing Bush sucked, those 5% who were just giving him a chance also acknowledged that Bush wasn't the right person. The other 46-47% lives were dependent upon their set of facts that the Republican Party's narrative was the only acceptable one. However, they weren't enough to prevent a reasonable response to the facts.
 

Now, it seemed those people who gave Bush a chance wanted to give "someone new" a chance. What will it take for enough people to be convinced of Trump's malfeasance and that there is an alternative

I think there's enough evidence for Trump's malfeasance or incompetence on the table already. To get an alternative to Trump will take two things.First, a good alternative. Second, more than Russiagate.

Yes, Trump and his campaign's actions re: Russia look suspicious as all get out, if not worse. They may even result in eventual impeachment. But there needs to be an element of real politics, if you will. Russia should not be forgotten, but neither should opposition to Trump forget that there is more (far more) than Russia. The whole gamut of reprehensibility and deplorability by Trump and the GOP needs to be opposed loud and long. And a credible, coherent set of responses needs to be created to the GOP's agenda of oppression and hatred. And we need candidates who can campaign and lead, skills that are even more important than navigating DC. (Although we can see how having an incompetent apprentice who knows nothing of politics is serving the GOP in DC, so don't count that out either.)

Or we could let the usual crew of hacks take their corporate handouts and lead the left (and the party) to another decade of disaster.