I've seen a quote somewhere that expresses it more eloquently, but I have the idea that the internet, as well as being a great democratising force bringing general marvellousness and wonders into the eyeballs of millions is also responsible for a massive dilution in the amount of actual facts available.
In the olden days producing a book was a laborious endeavour requiring effort, research and editorial supervision. Even a self-published piece of nonsense required money to get ideas out there and then be intriguing enough to persuade someone to hand over their hard-earned.
Nowadays any cretin with a keyboard can put any garbage they like out there, unfiltered, unscrutinised and unedited. The whole tedious business of fact-checking and the actual hard yards involved in thorough background research is rendered entirely unnecessary. All you need to gain any kind of currency are some pretty pictures and a nice turn of phrase. Or a whiny Australian accent.
The democratisation and liberation of knowledge that the internet has given us means that to the uneducated, or to those with a preconceived notion of what they want to have told to them, the opinions of the ignorant carry equal weight on the page with university professors or those with a lifetime of experience and expertise in their subject. You can choose the one with equations and long words or you can go for the pretty pictures that tells you how smart you are.
If you've never matured past the adolescent stage of rebelling against everything and assuming the world is against you all the time, and some webpage tells you that damn you were right and those idiot teachers who told you you weren't all that clever are wrong and somehow involved in some big plot to make you stupid, who are you going to believe? The internet is confirmation bias writ large.
You can then throw an extra factor into the mix. In days of yore (which were just before the olden days), charlatans, fraudsters and snake oil merchants had to actually put some effort into persuading your money to go from your pocket to theirs. They would have to get to your home, or at the very least turn up on a wagon in a travelling show. Now they need do nothing but carry out a one time slick presentation and wait for the gullible to turn up waving cash at them. Not only is the internet confirmation bias writ large, it's available on a DVD on this website for a one time offer price.
