Every election, while I'm working on filling out my sample ballot, I visit the candidates' websites to see what they claim to stand for. Almost without exception, there's never any depth or nuance to their stances, and it's sprinkled with fearmongering dog whistles.

Politics is dumb because the electorate lacks a deeper understanding of policies and tradeoffs, so shallow, partisan takes win elections. The problem isn't that a Dickensian metaphor went over the heads of college literature students; it's that practically all the information most adults consume is intellectual junk food, and people aren't used to challenging their views or taking on different perspective.