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US officials struggle to quash Hurricane Helene conspiracy theories
(www.reuters.com)
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this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2024
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How come America is so uniquely like this?
I understand these crazy conspiracy types can be found elsewhere, but it feels far more common in the US?
Rich country with weak education?
lead poisoning?
Aliens?
Hurricanes?
PFAS?
America (and I fear soon Canada) is uniquely like this because plenty of media treats all information as facts regardless of its credibility and without consequences.
So any entity can say literally anything, and another entity will report it as credible information. So long as the report reinforces what certain groups of people want to hear, it's immediately accepted as indelible truth from an undisputed authority making anyone who disagrees automatically wrong and probably the Devil.
Now apply this to entire regions that have homogenized media ownership that has a certain political leaning, and you get wall to wall propaganda of whatever "real" news you want people to feel/think, and people who actively reject anything that doesn't support their fantasies.
Especially when media regularly headlines a lunatic as a perfectly normal individual with something meaningful to say and that they are perfectly acceptable to consider as a possible leader of your nation.
Or, at least more powerful. I imagine they are only more powerful.