Again, social media has caused a lot of problems in how people communicate their anger and hatred. When they don't need to temper their comments and don't bother to take the time to consider their words after seeing something they strongly disagree with or take immediate exception to, they fire off replies that anger others just as much and the firestorm begins. People who had been friends for decades no longer want anything to do with each other, they post memes, links and repeat comments that have no basis in fact and the flood of BS grown into a tsunami. One of the worst things- people don't bother to find out what they're talking about by doing a simple google search on the one thing that has made finding information easier than at any time in history.
I basically agree with everything you said.
Steve Bannon reportedly said in 2018: "The Democrats don’t matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with sh*t.” This mode of thinking apparently has some appeal, but it's a moronic way to deal with a pandemic.
One thing that puzzles me is why so many ordinary people (i.e. people who are not political operatives) post memes and other crap that can be proven false in a few seconds with a google search.
A variation on the crap theme are the conspiracy theories along the lines of "Fauchi once helped develop a vaccine, vaccine companies will make millions from COVID-19, Fauchi is touting vaccines, coincidence?" (I just made that up, I'm not referring to any specific conspiracy). The implied but unstated fact in this made up example is that Faucci must be getting a secret financial kickback. The conspiracies are often wildly implausible, but difficult to disprove in an absolute sense because they may include a few facts that are accurate, but imply additional facts (e.g. a secret financial kickback) without actually asserting these implied additional facts.
What's interesting is that some of the conspiracies seem to evolve as they are debunked. I saw a meme a few days that implied hospitals are implanting something when they swab a person for a COVID test. This one did not include any specific statements about what was being implanted or why it would be done. Earlier versions asserted that Bill Gates was behind it and chips were being implanted, but these were widely debunked based at least in part on denials by Gates. It appears to me that someone removed the specific factual allegations from the conspiracy as a way to make it more difficult to debunk.
I guess the "beauty" of conspiracies (if one's goal is to flood the zone with sh*t) is that it is a tool of sorts to shift the fact burden onto the person who does not believe the conspiracy (e.g. the proponent will assert the conspiracy it true unless a negative can be proven such as Fauchi is not getting any financial kickback).
My impression is that in many cases the person posting the crap doesn't care if it's true because they view it as helping their team (or tribe, if you prefer), and their primary goal is for their team to win (i.e. they are Steve Bannon wannabes). On the other hand, some people do seem to honestly believe all sorts of bizarre stuff.
