this post was submitted on 02 May 2025
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Explain Like I'm Five
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Many reasons, but people who lack critical thinking skills will generally only need one other person to agree with them, for confirmation bias to entrench itself.
But the situation is even worse than that, because these days, the "other person" doesn't even have to be real. A bot spreading disinformation can have the same effect as a person spouting nonsense.
And social media gives the tiniest minority the appearance of having a massive voice. Someone who is on the fence might see other Holocaust deniers online and think that there are millions of like-minded people like them.
When this spreads beyond Holocaust denial and into social and human rights causes, you have a disaster in the making. Those same people will make real decisions off their manipulated beliefs, and that hurts everyone.