Captured

 

A while back I wrote about the self-reinforcing dog-whistle machine. I was trying to get at the idea of how a background of bad information assumptions can lead to lower skepticism and the absorption of more bad information. If you've already been exposed to a pattern of Barack Obama's anti-Semitism, you're not going to work very hard to evaluate the next supposed anti-Semitic thing Obama does.

When people claim the election was rigged, trans women life expectancy is 35 years, climate change will end the world in 12 years, anti-fa was responsible for the capitol riot, Barack Obama was not a U.S. citizen, Clintons are involved in a pedophile ring, Trump's parents were in the KKK, family planning is an attempt at black genocide, California legalized pedophilia, Ilhan Omar was in an Al-Qaida terrorist training camp, illegal refugees get 3x more in government assistance than senior citizens, Russia 'hacked' the 2016 election, one might wonder, where are these people's skepticism?

After all, spectacular claims require spectacular evidence. It seems these people are happy with no evidence at all. 

The wrong answer is that they're just stupid people who need to learn critical thinking. But they show critical thinking in other aspects of life, so what gives?

It's this background of bad information assumptions that lead them to evaluate the likelihood of new information improperly.

I suspect this is just how indoctrination works. Like someone kidnapped as a child and eventually adopts the worldview of their captive. At first you reject what your captor tells you, but since they control the entirety of your experience, you eventually decide, "maybe these points aren't so crazy." You're buried in so much bad information that some of it has to get through. And when it does, it's going to adjust your priors to make the other misinformation seem more likely. Next thing you know, you're not skeptical at all of next crazy fact that comes your way.

In more mainstream cases, it looks like social media is playing the role of the captor.