I’m struck by how all the examples in your post highlight people for whom facts do not matter. The king of the fools and his band of merry jesters might be funny if people weren’t taking them seriously.

But as one of those people the lieutenant governor called “filth,” I’m far too personally aware of how serious this all really is.

I was born in 1962, an era in which engineers, scientists, and other experts were respected and listened to. The average person seemed smart enough to understand that experts could be wrong sometimes but still be on a path to learning and understanding.

Today, people who spend their lives mastering difficult subjects and working to improve humanity’s condition face jeering, mocking, and scorn from fools like the jester and his court.