alt Hacker NewsYou're describing a couple members of my family except... they don't use any Facebook products. Humans have been surrounding themselves with people that parrot their beliefs for generations; the internet just made it easier for fringe beliefs to reach critical mass.
If it not Facebook, it would be some other medium. What's the alternative, prevent people from talking to each other unsupervised?
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I think the "it's Facebook" crowd are people who either weren't around for or don't remember before then. I don't remember before the "It's fox news" time but I now suspect there was probably something before that too.
I think a lot of it has to do with the young and idealistic clashing against the old and jaded and both groups yelling at strawmen of each other.
My parents and inlaws are all in their late 70s/early 80s. Facebook is an amplifier for the cohort in question...it's an addictive product experience delivered to an audience without lifelong training in how to spot memes vs sincerity, ragebait vs news, and now, AI vs reality.