The Patriot Post® · The Real Deal With Fake News

With the calamitous outcome of last year’s presidential election still haunting their every dream, many mainstream media folks have seemingly suffered an existential crisis. How could so many people be so stupid as to vote for Donald Trump, they wondered. In the scramble for answers, an old concept was brought forth, dressed in the novel language of a simpleton — fake news. Yes, these media sages concluded, American voters were duped into casting their votes for the villainous Trump because of the insidious and pervasive power of fake news. Oh, the humanity!

With its newly coined buzz word, the Leftmedia is now obsessed with what to do to stop this pandemic of propaganda. Social media sites like Facebook took up the cause by devising new filtering systems. But did these phony stories actually persuade enough Americans to change their minds so as to alter the electoral outcome? Not according to a recently released study by Stanford University, which concluded that fake news had little impact on the election results.

The study found that only about 8% of the adult population are willing to believe almost anything if it sounds plausible and fits their political preconceptions. In other words, most adults are discerning enough not to believe everything they read, and few change their political views based on a single news story, credible or not. In reality, these propaganda stories are only able to further cement what true partisans already believe. A discerning mind has the ability to critically evaluate the trustworthiness of new information. As our parents often told us, don’t believe everything you hear. Snake-oil salesmen are nothing new.

(Edited.)