We have viral false beliefs to blame for this. Like the fake history book, memes rely on brains to replicate, and therefore, they have evolved ways of controlling the behavior of brains to further their interests. Because the neocortex is constantly making predictions to test its model of the world, the model is inherently self-correcting. On its own, a brain will inexorably move toward more and more accurate models of the world. But this process is thwarted, on a global scale, by viral false beliefs.
