@harmlessgryphon

Ah, human nature. Lots of people throughout history have claimed to know what it is, but it's like chasing a constantly moving target.

The anti-vaccine people are morons, but I think what's going on is different than what the article suggests. In the 20th century there was only broadcast media, and a single fake or merely parochial message from a central committee could become the accepted reality of the masses. Whenever a revolution happened the first things to be taken over would be the radio stations, the TV channels and the tabloid newspaper printing presses.

In the 21st century that model doesn't work anymore. The mass broadcasters are in the process of being usurped by the real underlying social reality which was always there in the background - like Stalin's kitchens - but in the last century they either lacked control over the means of broadcasting or where actively suppressed.

The problem is not that all social stratifications other than the voice of the official central committee are fake. It's that there are genuinely differing narratives and social realities. If Zuckerberg tries to make himself king and banish or disrupt his disfavoured outgroups, perhaps also with input from the US government, then this is only likely to create more chaos.