The issues arent actually discussed to create discourse and understanding or to expand knowledge. They are about winning an us vs them battle

Yeah... It really seems like that sometimes and that's a bummer, I wish we had more people pointing these kinds of things out and attempting to have civil discussion, though it seems like they are drowned out by the hordes of group thinkers who want to protect their egoic groupminds they attach to.

The documentary you mentioned sounds familiar, I'm not sure if I've seen it or not but it sounds interesting and like something I'd like to see, I'm going to see if I can find it on YouTube.
The example of the cigarette lobby and how all that went down is a good example I think for this issue and many others. Quite fascinating indeed and at the same time a bit disturbing as well.

Totally agree with what you said about social media like FB at the end there, it is madness and I see it almost every day. I wish I could help add some kind of perspective to it all but my one small voice is pretty drowned out, heh. Maybe if I had hundreds of thousands of millions of followers but I'm just a small fry.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts leaky!