Part of the doom porn love fest that is a sub-dimension of conspiracy theories is attributable to “engagement.” That is, sensational and usually negative “news” gets clicks and attention and (ultimately) drives advertising revenue. Social media thrives on that mental hook. You can see it in FR - stories that are positive don’t get nearly as many posters as doom pr0n.
The other element at play is “alternative media” becoming more trusted by Deplorables simply because it’s alternative. Fair enough - we’ve been poked and punched and gaslighted bigly by the Authorities for a long time, most notably during the pandemic. But that “alternative media,” in general, sucks bigly. Gateway Pundit, Slay News, et al are chock full of reposted garbage void of facts.
Add to this mix that these Alternatives are also pushing engagement/fear.
The result is formerly rational Americans lapping up stupid stories, like everyone who’s been vaxxed will die in 3.4 years or Klaus Schwab said he will eat grandma to stop climate change.
Bingo. So much just insanely silly crap.
There’s also the sheer entertainment value of controversial, specious content.
Although I’m one to regularly bash the public façade of public characters, the infighting that stems from controversy is unfortunate, and I tend to avoid it these days. The intolerance for not being 100% about a particular issue is also unfortunate — a once linearly evolving pattern that developed precipitously early 2021. That said, you may have noticed an affinity I have to the 100% causes, but I’ll max out at 90% leaving room for curiosity & opposing views. But the intolerant “I’m not interested in reading your stupid BS” is often hilarious and spot on... lol
All-in-all, the diversity of thought, and opinions not expressed, are quite interesting — the FReepers’ input & information for a given article regularly go far beyond the excerpt. Am I the only that often jumps ahead to the comments to assess the potential value of the article? Ironically, the title for this article had me immediately engaged in what the author had to say...lol