I think this is an important comment.

I also was becoming skeptical of what was and what wasn’t being reported through those channels right about the time that I got access to the Internet. That skepticism towards what we now call “legacy media” did prime me to be way more open to hearing people on the Internet claiming to know “what’s really going on”. Not proud to say it, but I did have a brief season where I was tuned in to what Alex Jones was saying.

Had smartphones been a thing then? Maybe I would have turned out like the very folks this thread is talking about.