I completely agree and last week I made a post about this cognitive hole. Real vs hollow is exactly my subjective experience of it. Despite ofc "knowing" that it is wrong and ignorant. Simply being aware doesn't solve it.

Having even the most cursory familiarity with greeks > romans > christians > protestants > british > americans makes learning anything in that timeline 100x easier than anything outside it. And vikings too. Anyone else ever wonder how many converts fascism was delivered from the multiple streaming TV shows about vikings?

You know I see all this stuff about how "representation" of different identities is important in media so people who have been historically under-represented can "see themselves". And that may be; but I also think a diverse representation of identities/experiences/collectivities benefits everyone. Because we can "see each other".

I heard there is research (but haven't looked into it) that the TV show Will & Grace had a big impact on turning americans away from hating gay people so much, especially those who "didn't know" any gay people. It provided a "humanizing" opportunity. Even though Will & Grace has lots of critiques from gay side of things, ultimately that was not the direct target audience, although there as indirect benefit.

All this fighting over "DEI" and whatever, it is because these people recognize, in a different way and with different judgements, that all these casual exposures add up over a lifetime.