re: What is missing inside people who intentionally start/spread disinformation just for fun?

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I assume a lot of them either believe it, don't research opposition views, and/or believe the ends justify the means.

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There is also a monetary incentive if you are a talented story teller. I mean you take a thread of truth, extrapolate outcomes, use hedging language to create plausible deniability and protect yourself from libel suits and litter your story with suggestive adjectives and adverbs with a couple of suggestive images and you got the makings of a conspiracy theory. The people that do it well are pretty talented and will attract a following on twitter which they monetize.

Think about it. Mainstream TV promotes regular conspiracy theory programs like Finding Bigfoot and those haunted mansion and ghost story programs. People love a good story, real or not.