To answer your last question, I strongly believe in most corporations you will be judged on what you say and the connections you have, not your actual work performance or competence. If you don't believe me, read Robert Jackall's "Moral Mazes." We absolutely live in a world where people make shit up and that's what they're judged on.

I write about whistleblowers a lot, so I know the good people who know what they're doing and want it done right are the first people who are destroyed in any given situation.

Increasingly my brother and family pays no attention to politics. Nobody reads or fact-checks now, and it will only be more of a problem as deepfakes and completely manufactured AI photos and videos take over. Fact checking will not save us.