Speculation as spectator sport

A new book is out.Lost: Amelia Earhart’s Three Mysterious Deaths and One Extraordinary Lifeby Rachel HartiganI found this review of the Hartigan book fascinating for reasons that apply to Earhart, but also to hundreds of “mystery” topics. It remarks on the speculation and searches that have been going on for decades that are fueled by the “chatter-driven, nonfactual celebrity culture”. It cites how “social media turned speculation into a participatory sport” – what I call “mass opinionation” because everyone feels obliged to add their uneducated and often puerile comment to the news story, weird image, or video. As with conspiracy ideas, mystery creatures, anomalies, etc., “the myth making process is now instantaneous”. The reasonable realistic explanation is brushed aside, ignored or challenged by people with little grasp of logic or nature. This is why we have absurd tales of Bigfoots in Ohio migrating away from a meteorite, dogman attacks, mass psychogenic illness events, belief in…