A small motivated minority can sway narrow-margin elections with disinformation

Evidence

Moreover, we don’t need the whole population operating on the extreme side of the post-truth danger spectrum in order to undermine the status of ‘facts’ in democracy. This is a common misperception. Many influential elections are decided on narrow margins. Fake news just needs to dupe a few people. Study after study has shown that the people who spread the most fake news are highly politically active: they’re extreme, they’re motivated, they’re super-spreaders. They are not most people. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 219

Categorization

• SEED: Angle for an essay or explainer: ‘you don’t need to win the majority, just a few thousand swing voters in a handful of states’ — the super-spreader minority as an electoral vulnerability.
• XREF: Builds on the claim from @169 that most people are not extreme while >50% endorse at least one conspiracy theory; the danger is in the tails. — connects to: Low primary turnout lets organized minorities defeat established incumbents — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 1228; A narrow dedicated group can outweigh an apathetic electorate; Broad but shallow public sentiment lets well-placed minorities block national policy change — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 1109

Broader Connections

• A narrow dedicated group can outweigh an apathetic electorate #corroborates (0.85)
• Low primary turnout lets organized minorities defeat established incumbents #corroborates (0.80) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1228
• Broad but shallow public sentiment lets well-placed minorities block national policy change #qualifies (0.75) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 1109