The way the media are treating Michael Bloomberg’s “doctored” debate video, you’d think Bloomberg was running against Hillary Clinton or something. If you were looking for a better example of the media thinking you’re a complete idiot, you couldn’t do much better than this.

It’s hard not to laugh, albeit while rolling your eyes. But as Seth Mandel points out, we’ve been heading down this road for a while and probably shouldn’t be surprised if this all gets much, much worse.

The continued freakout over the Bloomberg video is a good example of the extent to which ppl’s brains are broken and we’re going to get some hella bad policies and regulations because ppl in power have somehow convinced themselves Facebook ads determine US elections. — Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) February 21, 2020

I remember watching members of Congress hold up Facebook ads calling Hillary the devil in a freaking congressional hearing and being like ‘What are we going to do about this!’ We’re governed by several hundred Grandpa Simpsons. — Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) February 21, 2020

We really are:

I mean I’m not even exaggerating pic.twitter.com/jd1tatKxNk — Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) February 21, 2020

This is a real scene from real life pic.twitter.com/4ciQymS1Po — Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) February 21, 2020

This is legit depressing.

America got boomered. Welcome to the future. — Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) February 21, 2020

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Twitter says Mike Bloomberg’s ad would likely be labeled as ‘manipulated media’ under new rules