The Influence of the Background on Our Thinking

The internet is a powerful shaping force, but it doesn't tell us anything about the truth claims people make about things. I think my friend Mary Harrington just wrote an essay about conspiracy theories as almost kind of like mythological truth. They're not actually true, but they have a sense about true things out there, but they don't have a way to express it in any other way. We've automated a lot of facts productions which means that when you're trying to build a narrative or defend a position,. you actually have access to an extraordinary number of facts that can support almost any position you want to take.