here on the sift we have been discussing "confirmation bias" (or at least i have).we all hold biases,preconceptions and prejudices,and corporate media happily caters to our very human failings.

if you lean right,you can watch FOX and be outraged by the intolerance of the supposedly "tolerant left".

if you lean left,you can watch MSNBC and be outraged at the ignorance and racism of those "god fearing/loving christians".

the sift is a predominantly secular left site,so when we see our buddy BOB post biased and manipulative videos,which serve only to confirm his own prejudices.we all happily pig pile on him to reveal the error of his ways,but what happens when OUR prejudices,and biases are challenged?

as revealed by many here...they are defended by either ridicule,or dismissiveness,without ever actually examining the content.

the point is simply this:we are human,and we all struggle to let go of long held beliefs and ideologies,because we find them comforting and they help bring some semblance of order in a chaotic world.

in the case of dylan roof,a young mind that was easily manipulated by an application we all use daily,and this story reveals the dangers of "confirmation bias".especially on a young and unformed mind.

from y/t:
How did Dylann Roof go from being someone who was not raised in a racist home to someone so steeped in white supremacist propaganda that he murdered nine African Americans during a Bible study?

The answer lies, at least in part, in the way that fragile minds can be shaped by the algorithm that powers Google Search.

It lies in the way Google’s algorithm can promote false propaganda written by extremists at the expense of accurate information from reputable sources.

Roof’s radicalization began, as he later wrote in an online manifesto, when he typed the words “black on White crime” into Google and found what he described as “pages upon pages of these brutal black on White murders.”

The first web pages he found were produced by the Council of Conservative Citizens, a crudely racist group that once called black people a “retrograde species of humanity.” Roof wrote that he has “never been the same since that day.” As he delved deeper, because of the way Google’s search algorithm worked, he was immersed in hate materials.

Google says its algorithm takes into account how trustworthy, reputable or authoritative a source is.

In Roof’s case, it clearly did not.

Roof was convicted and sentenced to death in the June 17, 2015, massacre at the historic Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston.

But there are many others who may be susceptible to the kind of racist propaganda that influenced him.