Question on @Quora: I am happy that John McCain died because I believe that was his punishment for being a traitor to the Republican Party. Why do people call me a jerk for believing that? https://www.quora.com/I-am-happy-that-John-McCain-died-because-I-believe-that-was-his-punishment-for-being-a-traitor-to-the-Republican-Party-Why-do-people-call-me-a-jerk-for-believing-that?share=4f1e16a2&srid=xXy

The dynamics at work here include the fear that economically disadvantaged, impoverished, abused, ignorant, small thinking, or incurious people feel when their worldview is profoundly challenged or appears to be in error or is logically untenable. Instead of confronting the fear and accepting what is obvious and changing their own perspective they further delude themselves and cling to whatever most superficially and apparently appears to be strong and powerful.

And it would be a tragic mistake to presume that only American Republicans or Libertarians fall into this trap. All those who profess to be liberal yet caution against true liberalism; those “progressives” with distaste for or unfamiliarity with meaningful progress; everyone who condescendingly pushes the naive electorate to the “center”; they too give themselves over to the apparent winner-to-be without much thought or hesitation.

And once this decision is made, to voluntarily blind oneself to reason and truth, to devote oneself to perpetuating a fantasy in order to preserve comfort, there is no argument that can reliably penetrate that shielded mind. Truth itself must be the primary objective or else nothing else can really be expected to make sense. It would be as if you were sailing a ship on the sea and purposely shielding your eyes from looking up at the stars in order to guide yourself.

http://blog.alijnabavi.info/2018/09/10/anti-social-media-how-facebook-disconnects-us-and-undermines-democracy-by-siva-vaidhyanathan-review-books-the-guardian/