[Shaun @ Tru6]

People with no critical thinking skills are one of the greatest threats the U.S. faces today. Back when we were young, People with no critical thinking skills were harmless. Generally, they kept themselves and had zero impact on society and culture.

The Internet changed that. The effect of the web, specifically online forums and social media in general, allows people with no critical thinking skills to have a voice, one with near unlimited volume. And they can build communities of like-minded people with no critical thinking skills that self-reinforce lunacy through conspiracy theory mythology, pretty much the same as early Man creating myths to explain things they didn't understand like the sun rising every day. Their "facts" are authenticated by sheer volume alone.

The Web as a welfare state for people with no critical thinking skills applies in the same way a government handout does for lazy people. It makes you feel intelligent and your opinion valued without ever having to do the work/research/reading to earn those qualities. In the process, truth is marginalized in favor of artificial self-esteem, so you have a positive reinforcement for negative qualities.

Opinion media has turbocharged this effect exploiting people with no critical thinking skills for massive profits. Talking heads create entire soap opera style narratives and storylines that allow people with no critical thinking skills to be part of a distinct Us vs. Them community and culture. It mixes reality TV with soap opera with news creating a groupthink culture where like-minded people fit in and feel comfortable in their echo chamber. It's more participatory, which is a critical key attribute, than as portrayed in the movie Idiocracy relying on a continuous cycle of peer reinforcement that makes a group think it is one thing (intelligent with a significant depth and breadth of knowledge matched with critical thinking abilities) that it clearly is not.