We love stories. Even false ones. Sometimes especially false ones.
As great as that is for writers of fiction, it can be dangerous in real life.
THE STORY
Case in point: a video spread via Twitter in which a man stands in front of a housing project under construction.
He says this development is going up in West Virginia and it will displace White and Black Americans in order to accommodate 321 Syrian Muslims.
They'll be living on American taxpayers' money.
The community will be run under Sharia law. No Christians will be allowed to enter the area.
It's costing $87 million and will be done in two months.
A funeral home next door is going to be torn down and a mosque will be built in its place.
Note how specific he is: 321 people, two months, $87 million. Specificity tends to make things more believable.
What he doesn't specify is the town or city, or who authorized it.
Hard to believe? That's because it's not true.
THE FACTS
Snopes.com investigated and found that "this video shows the Littlepage Terrace housing project, a low-income, housing tax-credit property allocated through the West Virginia Housing Development Fund, which houses zero Syrian refugees and many “regular” Americans."
The "funeral home" referred to in the video actually is a Rite-Aid store (and it's not being demolished).
You can see the video and the facts here: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/sharia-zone-housing-project-wva/
THE COMMENTS
The vast majority of the people commenting on the video bought it hook, line, and fake funeral home.
Here are some of the comments:
"Where to move to? M13 and Isam infecting the U.S. everywhere."
"This is my state and he is speaking the absolute truth."
"This is frightening. It is a subliminal take over of the world and everyone is silent!!!"
"It's time for the Lord to come."
"Been going on for years."
"Is this how the Govt expects to integrate these invaders into our culture?"
"Thanks for speaking up, that's a lot of bullshit going on glad you brought it up."
"Fight back or lose it all!"
"Time to bulldoze that house. No questions asked. It's war, pure and simple."
"What was the name of that movie? Oh yeah, There will be blood!"
"Get them! I DO NOT WANT A SINGLE ONE IN MY COUNTRY"
"Because George Soros is behind everything. Do some deep research. They claim he isn't a communist. But the organization says this is one he funds."
WHAT'S HAPPENING?
The comments go on and on, absolutely certain this is just another bit of proof of what they already believe. Some add other "facts" about this development.
Some seem ready to take up arms to drive out the non-existent invaders.
What if you showed them this story is false? My hunch is either they'd say, "Snopes is part of the conspiracy, for sure it's true!" or "OK, this one is false, but it's happening for real all over the country!"
If you asked for proof, they'd say, "It's all being covered up by (George Soros/liberals/the Jews/the Deep State/Democrats), but I know it's happening!"
It's confirmation bias and let's be fair--it affects us all to some degree, regardless of our political outlook.
We're happy when we find a story that confirms we're right, but we owe it to ourselves to find out whether it is fact or fiction.
How many videos like this did the mass murderer in New Zealand see and believe?
