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The most disturbing element of the #GreatSmearingWar, for me, is how easily people were duped by it. People who are, presumably, of good sense and sound judgement in their ordinary lives became wide-eyed, credulous cattle, ready - eager, even - to swallow every scam and fraud.
Just swallow it all down, seemingly without the slightest hesitation. Many touting this conspiracy theory were, of course, merely cynical political operatives, political assassins doing their jobs. But those who believed them should not have believed them, and they did.
A culture in which an obvious scam like this can succeed so effortlessly is a culture in trouble. If large numbers of people can be persuaded so easily of something so obviously false - the exact opposite of the truth, in fact - then they can be depended upon to believe anything.
