Two sharp observations about why falsehoods spread and why we keep trusting sources we've already caught being wrong.
Two named effects explain a lot of our information predicament. BRANDOLINI'S LAW (the 'bullshit asymmetry principle'): the energy needed to refute nonsense is an order of magnitude greater than the energy needed to produce it. This is why debunking always lags, why the 'firehose of falsehood' works, and why a single fabricated claim can outrun a dozen careful corrections. GELL-MANN AMNESIA (named by Michael Crichton): you read an article on a subject you know well and see it's riddled with errors — then turn the page and trust the next article on a subject you don't know, forgetting the lesson you just learned. Both are practical, not theoretical: they tell you to weight ease-of-production against truth (cheap, fast, emotionally engaging claims deserve MORE scrutiny, not less), and to let your expertise in one area calibrate your skepticism everywhere. The defense is procedural — verify before amplifying, and remember that a source that fools you once can fool you again.
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