President Joe Biden had conspiracy theorists in a tizzy after posting what appeared to be his reaction to the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl win on Sunday night.
āJust like we drew it up,ā Biden posted on X alongside a photo of āDark Brandon,ā the meme created by hardcoreāand very onlineāsupporters of Donald Trump that Biden and his team loved so much they adopted it as their own.
The post was apparently referencing far-right conspiracy theories which posit the NFL and high-level government operatives conspired to rig the Super Bowl in Kansas Cityās favor to give maximum exposure to a yet-to-be-announced endorsement from Chiefs star Travis Kelce and his girlfriend Taylor Swift.
Did people think more critically before? Or maybe there was limited dissemination in the past? Crazy BS maybe didnāt travel as far?
Iād like to think we could differentiate between fact, opinion, and BS more in the past, but thatās probably not true.
I think learning everything about the world from the random unqualified people around you is exactly how most people in history have done it. As long as itās a person you like and they say it with confidence, it will probably stick.
But now it is easier to see that process happening and avoid it. Itās also easier to locate authoritative sources of information.
Exceptā¦ even though this works for many of us, it paradoxically makes the problem WORSE for a huge number of people. We have easier access to all the opinions out there, but that means any given shitty opinion has the potential to reach millions rather than somebodyās social circle.
I agree. What I have no idea about these days is how to solve this.
It might be a āthere is no solutionā type problem, but it would be nice if more people and organizations as a whole recognized this issue.
Maybe publishing questionable information over a long period of time or our lack of holding orgs and individuals accountable contributed. Iād think it hard to legislate accountability without reducing freedom or speech, press, and opinion (that isnāt toxic, but thatās subjective and part of the problem isnāt it).