>As any journalist can tell you, the best answer to the question “what happened?” is not why don’t you ask a bunch of your friends what they think, organize their views along a spectrum, and then decide where to plant yourself.

Yet this is the propaganda tool de jour. The perception of public sentiment is very important in shaping peoples opinions, irrespective of the facts. A fact today might be interpreted in some way, the same fact in two years might be interpreted in a completely different manner. Perception is even more important than facts, because facts are actually just claims by authority figures. If you spread a certain sentiment that a certain authority figure is untrustworthy (or vice versa) you can "amend facts" in the minds of the electorate.