Apollo 11

[tw]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

One sad result of the coincidence of timing is that there will be a set of conspiracy theorists who will think that Trump is the president who got people to the moon.

Most people do not know how to separate hearsay from facts. Hypothesis supported by experimental evidence is ignored. Hearsay promoted by targeting an emotional brain (that of a child). Once the emotional person has bought into a myth, then that person will even get angry (ie resort to profanity) when facts and numbers expose that lie.

Saddam's WMDs were a perfect example.

The resulting thought process is called confirmation bias. Once one trusts another, then those lies must be true. No honesty can change their minds.

Same applies to the so many with fears of genetically modified foods. And those who fear child vaccinations. Neither fear is justified by any facts. Confirmation bias is clearly at play. Why would anyone believe a blond bimbo actress with no education who simply read lies from a Doctor. And cannot even admit he was lying when facts say so without doubt? Confirmation bias. She is pretty so she must be trustworthy.

How to separate lies from facts? Facts come with reasons why and perspective - numbers. And many paragraphs of text. Confirmation bias is easily promoted and hardened by emotions such as trust and subjective reasoning. And soundbyte (single sentence) statements.

Confirmation bias also makes reading anything longer than one paragraph difficult. Confirmation bias even makes this too difficult to read. Confirmation bias proves Trump is always right. His tweets routinely are only 140 characters long. So it must be true.