Aesthetic Materialism

  I can only speak to the United States about this - I don't know to what degree it applies elsewhere. Most people in the media tend to be liberals, whereas most people in the rest of the country are materialists.  That is to say, most people in the media are primarily concerned with issues of language, representation, rhetoric, the expression of ideas, principles, and so on, whereas most of the rest of us are more pragmatic- not Pragmatists, with a capital P, mind you (adherents of the extremely un-pragmatic philosophy known as Pragmatism), but just people who are pragmatically pursuing their own economic interests, or more accurately, just trying to live their lives. The proof of this was Trump.  Most people just don't care about all the awful things he said - or, if they feel anything, it's mostly just entertainment value.  To the extent that Trump satisfies our demand for stupid humor and guilty pleasures, we'll pay attention - but no further.  Truth be told...