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Comment by hunglee2 | Hacker News Reader

i once thought the same way, but I've since changed my view. The more crap we see / hear, the more we train ourselves on aggregate to be more skeptical of narratives we're fed

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This might be true for you, and hopefully for me, but for the average person I'd bet more money on them just doubling down on <source of confirmation bias> than becoming more skeptical.

yes you might be right.

I wish I shared your optimism. But one look at the current conspiracy theory laden landscape would suggest you're wrong, I'm afraid. People believe what they want to believe.

Spend only 5 minutes with some of my neighbors, who somehow manage to cram the whole enchilada of how Bill Gates changes our genes through mosquitoes, how the Rotschilds rule the world, how vaccines contain metals, how Hitler was forced to do his thing by the US, how all Jews left Ukraine one week before the war, etc. etc. etc. into that short timeframe — and completely unasked for, of course. They just HAVE to tell it.

More skeptical, my ass.

I think they gain a semblance of perceived control or perhaps a sense of superiority believing these things. Everyone else is wrong or part of the conspiracy and aren’t they clever for having figured it all out. When I run into folks like this they seem so happy with themselves.

It's usually perceived control + sense of superiority + confirmation of existing bias.

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