Yes before internet and social media , typically only qualified professionals could afford platforms to meet up and spread ideas. Like science conferences and special groups that meet irl .
To be fair there probably where some we’ll funded cuckoos back then too. ( imho organised religions are examples of that, but old organisations are more careful and don’t jump on any bandwagon)
But the social media revolution has made it free . There is no friction at all stupidity can multiply infinitely and does .
The idiots finally have a forum . Before they could not organise, but today the threshold to participate is very low. Just get an account on some platform and start copy pasting ignorance all day long .
What about ASR we have the same low threshold, we would never have this discussion otherwise . Or other good well moderated fora . Clear transparent agenda and good moderation is key and that the basic assumptions are actually true !
Actually is it not the case that most ideas humans ever had is wrong , there is just overwhelmingly more bad ideas than good ones . It’s just like some kind of entropy there are more ways to do stuff wrong than there is to do stuff right.
I think the post truth society in the 2000’s we achieved now is a disaster, I think we alll will suffer for it . Science democracy, human rights will all go away and whe are back to the raw power struggle and voilence of older societies .
Just like the fascist and communist ideas of the 1900’s was the disaster of its time.Rigth wing ideas are reused in today’s stupidity, but it’s just a component .
In 1930 someone could be an fascist/communist idiot. in 2020 you are an idiot fascist
idiot is the dominant factor