It seems like this argument is the lock that keeps many normies shut down from reality. They're convinced that, "All the news media and respected institutions say it! So you're just delusional to believe they would all lie. It's a free country, no dictator is forcing them to lie."

In the case of the left, it almost seems to go over their heads that the news is owned by mega corporations, which they detest as greedy and corrupt. And that institutions are systemically racist. Those leftists are capable of understanding the concept that a web of corruption and evil ideology can overtake the country's power structure. They just are just blinded by their hate for anything that doesn't support the radical left.

On the other hand, it's harder to get the normies and "moderates" to understand this concept of mass corruption. How do we show them that all these authority groups are all apart of the same slimy web or ideology? It's not that these groups have independently verified their allegations in good faith.