This, perhaps more than anything else happening in politics, is a troubling sign— when people lose the ability to interpret stories beyond the surface level, they become very susceptible to propaganda. https://t.co/pm9I0UnOgA

— Matt Zoller Seitz (@mattzollerseitz) August 21, 2022

Most Gen Z and a lot of Millennials seem to have trouble with this. It was just taken as a given when I was young that because, for instance, Stephen King wrote about a clown murdering people didn’t mean he actually wanted to dress up as a clown and murder people.

But these days, tons of folks are convinced that Stephen King is definitely dressing up as a clown and going out slaughtering because he wrote about it once (or if not, that he supports clown murder sprees).

I cannot understand what these people are smoking.