People make choices about they believe. Faced with opposing ‘facts’ they opt for one said by someone of their own tribe or they choose the one that most closely follows their existing belief. This isn’t about lying or even lying to oneself. It is about the complete lack of any attempt at objective thinking because firstly – few are taught at school or in their homes to be objective; and secondly because the there is a need to defend at all costs ones existing conclusions. Conclusions are not to be changed or challenged because if they need to change, why did one draw them in the first place? Objective reasoning suggests one made incorrect assumptions in the past.
It is an attack on one’s intelligence. What this human foible means is a vast number of people are swirling around social media in a delusion they refuse to face. Lets take the big one. There is no god. You don’t need a religion to be a good person because all those ethics god supports were only written by people. You don’t need a belief to be good or bad in this life, mean or charitable, loving or hateful … that is only down to you.