re: #115 JC1

I think that it’s mostly about the ability of cranks to spread their message via Youtube, podcasts, and the like coupled with a lack of critical thinking education.
Cranks and people with fantasy prone personalities always existed, but prior to the internet their reach was limited to shouting on a street corner or maybe publishing a newsletter to a couple hundred folks. Now, any idiot can reach millions and ‘you might also like this’ suggestion algos make it easy to fall down a rabbit hole. Additionally, the media wants eyeballs and clicks, and crazy sells.

Most of us as irrational beings with mental filters and biases. Even being aware of all this, and on constant guard against our brains interpreting reality irrationally is not enough to completely guard against confirmation bias, wishful thinking, etc.

The average person is unaware of how faulty human thinking is, and is basically at the mercy of their bubble and media diet.

Yes, but limiting internet access to professionals, or something, would be highly detrimental to anyone who isn’t physically near people they interact with socially under the current paradigm.

And what other way is there to remove the virtual soapbox, especially while maintaining the legality of the physical one?