The Washington Post ran a story concerning a bunch of things that American believe that are provably false. I included the link before and while this article was focused on mostly political items it did include a question on autism and vaccines.
There re many other things that many Americans believe that are simply false, including things about climate change, how government money is spent, how refugees are vetted and so much more.
One would think that with the existence of the Internet where so much valid information is available and easily accessed we would have better facts at our disposal, and some do, but many can't distinguish between the phony sites and the real ones.
We also tend to believe lies that fit into our pre-conceived notions. I watch a video yesterday about some problems with millennials that had a lot to do with how they grew up using technology and failed to develop certain social skills. Now it may be accurate or not, its that persons opinion, but the comments about the video included a number of attacks on liberals. Now certainly phones that text and video games with chat are not some liberal conspiracy, so these commentators simply ignored most of the subject matter to make it a political issue.
In fact, we have made everything into a political issue even if it really shouldn't be one. Climate change is not a political issue, how to deal with it might be, but the science is not up for a vote.
Similarly religious beliefs, at least in this country, are not a political issue or shouldn't be.
Trying to deny people the right to vote is not something that should be a political issue, how they vote is.
Giving sick people needed care should not be a political issue.
Its truly scary that many Americans actually believe some of the things in this article and I don't see any near term solution.
Lying is now the best political tactic we have as long as we also troll the Internet to plant false stories supporting the lies.
Its a scary future.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/rampage/wp/2016/12/28/americans-especially-but-not-exclusively-trump-voters-believe-crazy-wrong-things/?utm_term=.b035a36c7401
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