[belZaah]

The difference is the power people have. A single person has no capacity to spread their specific perspective to tens of millions of people, who take it as gospel. And that person, typically, cannot be made to change their perspective at will.

[eithed]

* stares at presidents / party leaders, religious leaders, social media influencers, tv stars, singers *

No, surely no

[Aerroon]

Gestures wildly at the 20th century.

Or a more recent example would be the "misinformation craze" we had going on since years ago. That seems to have fallen away when it became apparent that many fact checkers were politically aligned.

The concept of "memes" in a more general sense is a counterargument too. Viral ideas are precisely a way of one person spreading their perspective to tens of millions.

You could even argue that the current AI bubble building up is a hype cycle that went out of control.

These are all examples of very few people impacting the beliefs of millions.