Which is the greater threat to America, a mushroom cloud or a mushroom crowd?

The old joke about Mushroom Management Style says, “Keep ‘em in the dark and feed ‘em bull $hit.” The mushroom management joke is a humorous truism that should give Americans pause. Mushroom management helps breed a growing mushroom crowd among our electorate. With our cuts to education, our war on science, our refusal to invest in infrastructure, a media constantly pushing sensationalism and self gratification, and all the Big Lies that substitute for real political debate — aren’t we growing a massive mushroom crowd? In a democracy, isn’t having an informed electorate just as important as having a strong deterrent to nuclear attack? What can we as individuals do to lessen the growing threat of the mushroom crowd?