Dr. Todd Rose

Well, so here's what's funny.

Like, you could imagine that the fringe is like this nefarious, like they know that they're in the minority and like their only way to power is to convince you that you're in the minority.

And there's certainly going to be some of that, right?

But what we have found in our research is that

there's a simpler explanation, which is people with fringe opinions are under the same illusions as everybody else.

Right.

So they're hearing the same, you know, amplified retweeted views.

And they're like, listen, a lot of people agree with me.

And so they get emboldened.

So of course I'm going to speak out.

Like we know that if you believe you're in the majority, you are way more likely to share your opinion because there's no risk.

Right.

And so, so a simple explanation is we're all under the same illusions and

And those illusions are making, they're emboldening people with fringe views to be even more vocal, and they're leading a lot of the majority to actually self-silence.

And then it basically makes those fringe people look like the dominant view.

Now, I will say one thing, Mike, I think is important, which is, I'm not saying that the fringe can't be right sometimes, right?

The truth is, is almost all progress comes from fringe ideas to begin with.

So,

I'm not saying that those people shouldn't have a voice.

They should.