There is no reason that even forms an argument. It just says the meme in question spreads well with fidelity—that it’s a good story, i.e. one that hooks into cognitive biases in a memorable fashion—and nothing about the truth or falsity of its informational content.
This reminds me of how conspiracy theories spread. I have looked into Project Blue Beam, for example. There is a LOT of material on the web about Project Blue Beam—lots of videos, web pages and so on about it. It’s quite popular on the web as conspiracy theories go. It all comes down to one short book and a talk by one person. But it captured the imagination of conspiracy theorists, and started accreting other conspiracy theories to it.
(The actual origin of Project Blue Beam—where that one person got it from—is hilarious, but I won’t spoil it for you.)
There is no reason that even forms an argument. It just says the meme in question spreads well with fidelity—that it’s a good story, i.e. one that hooks into cognitive biases in a memorable fashion—and nothing about the truth or falsity of its informational content.
This reminds me of how conspiracy theories spread. I have looked into Project Blue Beam, for example. There is a LOT of material on the web about Project Blue Beam—lots of videos, web pages and so on about it. It’s quite popular on the web as conspiracy theories go. It all comes down to one short book and a talk by one person. But it captured the imagination of conspiracy theorists, and started accreting other conspiracy theories to it.
(The actual origin of Project Blue Beam—where that one person got it from—is hilarious, but I won’t spoil it for you.)