By Staff Writer Ben Pfeffer.

You know how every once in a while, you wonder how somebody can be so stupid? Well, they could be wondering the exact same thing about you. Both you and the other person think that they themselves are right and the other person is wrong because they read “facts” about it on the internet.

The biggest two groups of people that are victims of the false internet facts problem are Anti-Vaxxers and Flat Earthers. Anti-Vaxxers are those who believe that vaccines directly cause diseases. Flat Earthers are those who believe that the Earth is flat.

Both of these groups very firmly believe that they are correct, and the majority of society is wrong.

Anti-Vaxxers think that they are right because of information, usually false, that they read on the internet. The main example of this problem was when Dr Andrew Wakefield conducted his experiment over 20 years ago in 1998. Wakefield and his colleagues published a report that connected vaccines to autism. This report was withdrawn and proven false many years later, but it was around long enough to create a strong enough anti-vax movement to bring back mumps and measles in the Unites States.

Due to false information being spread across the internet and going viral, the Anti-Vax movement has gained traction and has reached the top ten in global health threats. The internet has caused the spread of this false information that links vaccines to diseases and has endangered a few communities.

Flat Earthers also think that they are right because of information that they read on the internet that is usually false. The belief that the Earth is flat dates all the way back to the dawn of man. Up until the sixth century BC, nobody even believed that the Earth was round. However, through science and higher class thinking, we have discovered that the Earth is a sphere and not a flat disc.

Flat Earthers have reverted their way of thinking all the way back to before the third century BC when we finally established that the Earth was a sphere. The spread of this belief that the Earth is flat has been because of the internet. The internet has caused us to overthink basic facts and believe these conspiracy theories and false facts. The more that we see these conspiracy theories and false facts, the more prone we are to accept them as true and believe in them.

The main question I have is: How is it possible that the most powerful MODERN technology has caused people to discount proven facts and pushed themselves further back on the scientific timeline to before humans first created paper and about to the time that the first ever concrete was created?

The internet has also mainly strengthened conspiracy theories and groups that believe in false information through a way that you may not expect. Believers of these conspiracies or false facts join online groups with others that believe exactly what they themselves believe, according to theconversation.com.

Due to these groups being created and more ‘evidence’ being shared, the members of these groups have the false facts dug deeper and deeper into their brains, solidifying their beliefs, and further prompting them to spread their beliefs too members outside of the groups that may be susceptible to believing them.
The internet is the reason that the anti-vax movement and the flat earthers exist.

Without the internet to spread the false information and fabricate lies that support their belief, these groups get no traction or any ‘evidence’ that they are right.

The internet is an amazing modern technology and should remain in place, but something needs to be done about this mass spread of false information on the internet.