This is more true of "research" than politics by the way
so that they can demonstrate that their Pavlovian reflexes are in good working order.
Such free-thinking, self-directed people!
In research, methods, standards, rigor, understanding of contexts and perspective and limits, all can and should be learned and applied by everyone. #pizzagate is an example of what happens when people with active contempt for all of the above and an inflated sense of their own "intuition" decide to confabulate a screed that supports an agenda they already endorse against objects they already hate.
It is a lot like the cartoon. Society and politics are not a machine with a clear function and operators who must know how to operate it if it is to get from point a to point b. Investigative research is a lot like that. Thing is, one can learn how to do it if one cares. Or one can just throw a list of names of people one dislikes into a random configuration on a graphic and then treat the resulting slash fiction like a divine revelation that "THEY" don't want you to know about. And, in this case, do that in a collaborative effort with a bunch of Nazis.
The only comparable thing I can think of right now is the "Russian election hack" propaganda. The latter, being done by relative professionals (more as hijackers than pilots, however), has a small chance of being coincidentally true.
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