[porcoda]

Sadly, based on the responses I don’t think many people have read the report. Just read how the essay discusses “exfiltration” for example, and then look at the 3 places that shows up in the NIST report. The content of the report and the portrayal by the essay are not the same. Alas, our truncated attention spans these days appears to mean a clickbaity web page will win the eye share over a 70 page technical report.

[munksbeer]

I don't think the majority of human's ever had the attention spans to read and properly digest a paper like the NIST report to make up their minds. Before social media, regular media would tell them what to think. 99.99% of the population isn't going to read that NIST report, no matter what decade we're talking.

Because it isn't just that one report. Every single day we're trying to make our way in the world and we do not have the capacity to read the source material of every subject that might be of interest. Human's rely on, and have always relied on, authority like figures or media or some form of message aggregation to get their news of the world and form their opinions on it from that.

And for the record, in no way is this an endorsement for shallow takes or thinking and then strong views on this subject, or another. I disagree with that as much as you. I'm just stating that this isn't a new phenomenon.