General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Add my "what went wrong" take to the pile [View all]Hugin
(34,746 posts)to get through the thick skulls.
Very interesting and useful take, EarlG. I agree what's happening seems to be a perversion of the watercooler effect. People are isolated and fed customized information. Of course, they assume that what they are seeing is what everyone else is seeing. This is exactly how cults are formed.
Extremely likely and also explains the cultish nature of how the programmed behave. Interestingly, it could also explain why people tend to leave Trump's diatribes early. It may be because what they are hearing causes cognitive dissonance with what they have been programmed to "know". Which is uncomfortable.
Now, whether the majority of it is deliberately crafting of mindsets or people such as Trump leveraging the effect to their advantage without understanding it's mechanisms. I'm guessing it's some of both.
Thanks for sharing your dip into the pond, EarlG! Also, I'm going to have to bookmark this thread in that so many of the replies also contain potential puzzle pieces.