Affirmation and confirmation is a metaphorical cognitive carbohydrate. We seek it out because we’re more wired to affirm each other (to keep us in communities, I suspect) than to inform each other. We also seek it out because it feels better than confrontation.
The result? A new kind of hyper-informed ignorance. We’re not ignorant because we’ve consumed too little information anymore. We’re getting ignorant because we’ve consumed too much of the wrong information.

Posted on August 8, 2011 at 6:14pm.

Affirmation and confirmation is a metaphorical cognitive carbohydrate. We seek it out because we’re more wired to affirm each other (to keep us in communities, I suspect) than to inform each other. We also seek it out because it feels better than confrontation.
The result? A new kind of hyper-informed ignorance. We’re not ignorant because we’ve consumed too little information anymore. We’re getting ignorant because we’ve consumed too much of the wrong information.

—Clay Johnson says [the most dangerous special interest group in America](http://www.quora.com/U-S-Politics/What-are-the-most-harmful-special-interests-in-the-US/answer/Clay-Johnson? snids =23873519#ans664637) is … us.