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Agreed! The chain:

"Fact" checks > Polarization > Poor discussion > People retract to their own bubbles where discussion isn't hostile > Insular communities with groupthink 1> Sharing of content that is agreeable to the group, but factually incorrect 2> Not checking factual accuracy of content because it would be offensive to one's loyalty to the group

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I think this is more or less how you get to beliefs like "Communism isn't bad, it just hasn't been done right yet," or "Social media are pushing the narrative with fact checking," or "Vaccines and masks are a deep-state conspiracy."

It would be too much of a shock to have your own beliefs challenged in such a fundamental way, so there has to be another way out where you can rationalise it instead. This provides some comfort but the trade-off is you take a step further into the rabbit hole.

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