[rtourn]

Part of the cause of misinformation is that people want to believe in misinformation because it allows them to be part of their social group. The problem is that belief in certain facts will include you or exclude you from your social group and that some ideas in some social groups are not even allowed to be questioned. It's like all the bad parts of a religion that I hated: dogma, excommunication, blasphemy, and witch burnings.

- Dogma, a list of things you have to believe in to be part of the group.

- Excommunication, rejection from the group if you don't believe in the dogma. Depending on where you live, it's like killing a person.

- Blasphemy, the idea that some things are not allowed to be said out loud or even thought about.

- Witch burning, blaming a single person for all the problems of the village and then a mob of people attacking and killing that person.

Part of the solution is to stop treating social/political groups like a 16th century religion. Don't excommunicate people. Don't burn witches. There should be no such thing as blasphemy. It should be okay to ask hard questions without being accused of something horrible. Above all, groups need to embrace and celebrate a well proven proof, even if it contradicts the dogma.