I wonder if conspiracy peddlers like ‘J’ actually bother to examine the references they provide?
It really is laziness compounded. Just send on an article which they haven’t bothered to read properly, containing references they never looked at, and claim this proves their case, and also shows up members of the reality-based community to be stooges, stupid, sheeple and so on.
In her testimony to US Congress last week, Haugen spoke of Facebook’s approach was to increase conflict and division wherever possible, because this gets more attention, and attention means more revenue.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/oct/05/facebook-frances-haugen-whistleblower-regulation
They could ensure that people pass on information from more reliable sources, and check that people actually bother looking at an article before forwarding it, but creating this ‘friction’ would slow down the sensational aspect of whatever ‘news’ users are so keen to pass around.
Remember a few years back, we were looking at the Wakefield scandal, concerning MMR and autism? One of our correspondents produced a paper which provided absolute proof, so it was claimed. We took the trouble to actually look at it, and follow the links provided. The links either had nothing whatsoever to do with the subject they purportedly proved, or had a tangential bearing – it did reference vaccines – but still proved absolutely nothing concerning a MMR/autism link. They didn’t even talk about it.
The behaviour of conspiracy peddlers like ‘J’ is truly reprehensible. Not only are they too lazy to study the behaviour they are promoting, they are also dishonest enough to ignore solid refutations when they are made.
This isn’t some abstract exercise, like questioning the validity of the moon landings, or indulging in speculation on the WTC demolition – Covid denialism is costing lives, by the thousand, every day. It is blighting the health of millions, and promoting a disease which could eventually kill vastly more – by mutating into a very much more deadly form in the unvaccinated.
One should have to be so sure of their case, that only mental health problems or a very significant expertise would provide that certainty. I am sure – particularly in the case of denialists we see here – we can rule out any expertise whatsoever.