One of the most frustrating things to deal with is people making assumptions about how (social/political) systems work, and the reality being so far off that you can't possibly correct them without sounding like you're making shit up.

Like this persistent idea that journalists are careful purveyors of the truth and facts, and then you have to explain to people that they also just copy-paste the government press releases without checking anything, that many journalists have genuinely never *considered* the possibility that these government sources may be lying, that they have full uncompromising faith in the government.

And if you tell people this, they're like "surely that can't be right, someone would have noticed", because the person you're talking to has a fundamental distrust of the government, but the journalist has a fundamental trust, and likely neither could even imagine the other party's perspective being real, because their lived experiences are so far apart.

And then you're left 'inbetween' them with your data and evidence, and it doesn't matter what the answer is, because at least one of them will disbelieve you no matter what conclusion you draw and no matter how much evidence you supply.