People will believe anything that reinforces their biases
Yes. The mainstream media demonstrates this every day with propaganda devoid of fact or truth. They rush to define narrative based on lies.
The “Gentle Giant” narrative from Ferguson remains the best example although there are many others. We have suffered years of our elected President being accused of all kinds of things that have been shown to be untrue and all they do is move on to the next fabricated story.
It is very dangerous and all of us want to quickly jump to conclusions based on incomplete data. It happens here on FR every day (myself included). The “media” plays this tune and since like-minded people tend to aggregate together to view news or discuss current events it is reinforced.
This is how we have a nation that sees two opposing “truths” about every issue and it is why civil and rational public discourse is rather pointless. This sad state of affairs benefits our politicians and media, but it is the enemy of truth.
... like-minded people tend to aggregate together to view news or discuss current events it is reinforced.
The Hall of Mirrors
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/open-gently/201504/do-you-ever-feel-you-live-in-hall-mirrors
FReepers also believe unquestioningly if it fits our biases.