> If you're deluged with carefully chosen factual information, that's more convincing than outright lies. I think it's exactly the opposite. It's far easier t

> If you're deluged with carefully chosen factual information, that's more convincing than outright lies. I think it's exactly the opposite. It's far easier to convince with outright lies than with carefully chosen facts, because those lies are crafted to match what you want to believe. That's what false conspiracy theories are born of. Everyone is subject to that bias, even people that consider themselves highly logical. It starts becoming a problem when it is manipulated to channel broadly held but not expressed resentments. This is common in ethnically fractured developing societies, where a rumor about something someone in group x did to someone in group y could turn into a coup or war, but it seems that developed societies are no longer immune either.