I also think that poor general education has also been exposed. People lack general science education and critical thinking skills. Just look at all the 'gotcha' posts of people giving scientists a hard time for changing their positions as new information is learned, when that is exactly what a scientist is supposed to do.
The other part drives these conspiracy theories is not just that they share a platform with legitimate sources, but also the algorithms. Someone clicks on a single story that is borderline conspiracy out of curiosity, and now they are served them at every turn. It's easy for a person to get lost and think that what they are being pushed is the entire world.
By the way, I think you're being downvoted because of this statement:
We live in a world where a substantial number of people believe the earth is flat, that 5G cellular is a mind control scheme, that vaccines cause autism, that COVID-19 was created by a political party, that the concept of climate change is manufactured, or that major national crises are actually just actors being paid to further a political narrative.
I've noticed there is a contingent on HN that do believe in some or all of these things.
Where are the studies that actually show it is a substantial number? Where's the peer-reviewed replication of those studies? How do those studies account for the "Lizardman constant" (https://slatestarcodex.com/2013/04/12/noisy-poll-results-and...)?
Maybe I'm unique, but I'd guess many of the downvoters have similar complaints.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/fox-news-b...
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-vaccine-half-americ...
How many people does it take to become 'substantial'?
If you didn't read my link, I suggest you do. Plenty of polls are designed in a way that almost encourage terribly inaccurate results.
Perhaps these aren't, but I'm not going to be convinced they're accurate by just a cursory glance at results.
I'm not saying they're necessarily wrong, either - just being skeptical until I see a really strong case.
As I suggested in my first post, though, not all studies are created equal.
This one could be accurate, but I'm not jumping straight to 98% certainty based on two articles. Survey design matters, and high confidence must be earned.
I shouldn't have said I take issue with the claim. It would have been more accurate to say I don't know that I trust the claim implicitly.