A sobering and sad read. The tl;dr is that modern hoaxes are manufactured to appeal to a demographic of society that either doesn’t care if they are hoaxes, or is so cognitively biased that they won’t believe evidence debunking the hoax.<p>It’s the same mechanism behind denying evolution or climate change: Some people simply say that the “evidence” against their beliefs is manufactured by a conspiracy.<p>We saw this is the false murder statistics shared by Donald Trump: People shared them widely because they confirmed their fears about blacks.<p>When pinned down on the fact that the numbers were ridiculously wrong and that the source had been completely fabricated, they shrugged and said, “Well, its still useful to share because we need to have a conversation about the problem with black people in America.”