Two bad (and sad) things can be true at the same time.

Which stories about Russia do you find made up, exactly? When my relative had to watch his neighbour being taken to a Russian torture chamber in Kherson, not to be seen for months, and then hearing his stories about daily beatings, electrocution, pulled fingernails and the like - was that made up? Are you one of those people who consider the massacre of hundreds of unarmed Ukrainians in Bucha "made up"?

Kim Dotcom, the Critical Thinker, does. But he curiously suspends critical thinking when pandering idiotic conspiracy theories about biolabs weaponizing birds. Gotta love these selective critical thinkers.

I have a hard time just convincing people in my company to buy a license for some software we arguably need. I literally can not convince them using any logic or facts, it's downright infuriating and I feel like I'm in a crazy world. You can't bring people to the watering hole, they have to get there on their own. And by that point, I've given up and have moved on. And even then, no amount of "I told you so" will have them listening to you next time around, they always just double-up on their own ideas and cope with the existence of any facts that contradict them. Oh and sometimes they forgot you even told them in the first place, and they make it seem like they thought of it first.

I weep for this world.

Nitpicking, but I think the saying goes "You can bring a horse to the watering hole, but you can't force it to drink". :-)

I know what you mean and I work with some smart people that also cannot be convinced with arguments unless they come from someone with a high social status. They have to fail to learn anything if they don't have someone around with a high social status to guide them.