Another (old) example of fake news

[phinds]

We all read/see/hear articles and discussions about how things on the Internet in particular, but even to some extent in "mainstream" media (to say nothing of right wing and left wing publications) can be misleading or just downright false.

I was interested to see that, not too surprizingly, this goes back quite a way. In 1917 H.L. Mencken, then one of the most widely read and highly respected newspaper writers wrote a long, detailed, and totally spurious article about the invention of the bathtub.

Mencken's bathtub hoax

He declared publicly and repeatedly that it was a joke, and It would have been easily debunked at the time, had anyone bothered to check, but it became very widespread and was quoted in many reputable publications. As he later said:

The success of this idle hoax, done in time of war, when more serious writing was impossible, vastly astonished me. It was taken gravely by a great many other newspapers, and presently made its way into medical literature and into standard reference books. It had, of course, no truth in it whatsoever, and I more than once confessed publicly that it was only a jocosity ... Scarcely a month goes by that I do not find the substance of it reprinted, not as foolishness but as fact, and not only in newspapers but in official documents and other works of the highest pretensions.

And he was also known to have said

The majority of men prefer delusion to truth. It soothes. It is easy to grasp.

It's the truth of that last quote that really struck a chord with me. We see too much of it today.

 

[jack action]

Why would a false belief be "easier to grasp" than actual facts?

How does believing the Earth is flat instead of spherical easier to understand? Or that a table was moved by a ghost is easier to visualize than some guy who used a trick on you?

It has much more to do with how much one respects the source of his/her false belief versus the source stating the facts. For you to defend your belief, you must have tremendous respect for your original belief's sources and/or very low respect for the people/organizations stating the facts.

If we see too much of it today, it is most likely a measure of the trust people put in our "fact sources". And if anonymous Internet sources are perceived as more credible than a government or the scientific community, it tells more about the latter than the former.

 

[BillTre]

And he was also known to have said:

The majority of men prefer delusion to truth. It soothes. It is easy to grasp.

It's the truth of that last quote that really struck a chord with me. We see too much of it today.

I think the soothes and is easy to grasp refers to the lack of mental effort one has to put expend in order to reach a conclusion and bring an end to the need for having to think about something of low interest.
I think this mental process goes on in many, for different subjects.

It has much more to do with how much one respects the source of his/her false belief versus the source stating the facts.

Certainly this makes sense in some situations.

 

[phinds]

Why would a false belief be "easier to grasp" than actual facts?

Actual facts sometimes require a bit of actual THINKING and lots of people don't want to be bothered by that.

 

[Vanadium 50]

It goes back further - you have the Yellow Journalism of the 19th century, but it probably goes back to cave paintings.