In the past several years, episodes like #Pizzagate have become all too common, as have fabulists like Posobiec. These conspiracy-mongers’ influence has been further reinforced by the age-old effects of homophily and confirmation basis. Essentially, belief in one conspiracy theory (“Global warming is a hoax”) increases someone’s susceptibility to further falsehoods (“Ted Cruz’s dad murdered JFK”). They’re like the HIV of online misinformation: a virus that makes its victims more vulnera-ble to subsequent infections.
