There's a trend in American thought -- I don't know how global it is -- that's very disturbing. It's the idea that you can choose what you believe to be true. A sort of "wishing makes it so" line of thinking that allows the subject to not only believe things that are obviously untrue and unsupported by any evidence, but to berate others for not believing the crazy stuff the subject believes.
We've all come across it. I've had conversations with people who believe that not only did Saddam Hussein definitely have ties to al Qaeda and weapons of mass destruction, but planned to conquer the world, Hitler-like. That no one ever claimed that Saddam had plans of world conquest is beside the point. Reports by the Pentagon that have shot down the ties to al Qaeda and the fact that any WMD in Iraq (not to mention any evidence for them) would've been found by now are irrelevant to these people. It's true because they believe it so hard and so much.
In no area is this line of thinking so popular and so dangerous at the same time as the area of science. If a small group believes something crazy, then suddenly decades of sound science are in doubt. We see it in issues ranging from stem cell research to evolution to climate change. If someone out there doubts, we're all supposed to doubt -- no matter how loosely based in reality their doubt is. The media does it's part in pushing these phony "controversies" by treating crazies as if they were mainstream. If you've got a foundation with a few million in endowments, you get to go on CNN as an "expert" and tell everyone the freakin' Grand Canyon was caused by the biblical flood and that Noah had dinosaurs on the Ark. The media, in a misplaced attempt to be unbiased and objective, removes all BS filters and allows equal time to liars, fools, and crazies.
Think back to the Clinton years, where we were assured by many industry shills that there was no evidence that second-hand tobacco smoke was bad for you. Now think about that. First-hand smoke is pretty much poison. What magic was it supposed to be that only made tobacco hurt the person who was using it? Does it know who's lungs it's supposed to harm? The claim is stupid on its face. Yet there were no shortage of people making this claim in the media and no real criticism of it other than "equal time."
There are times when this idea that you get to choose which universe you get to live in is deadly. When facts you don't like are either discarded as lies or rationalized as mistaken become times that are invitations to disaster. When you superimpose your own "facts" over reality and try to apply them in the real world. The magic fails and the results can be tragic.
Wausau Daily Herald:
The family of a town of Weston [WI] girl who died Sunday from an untreated medical condition did not know she had diabetes, Everest Metro Police Chief Dan Vergin said this morning.
Madeline Kara Neumann died of diabetic ketoacidosis, a condition that develops when a person’s body has too little insulin, police said. She reportedly had not received medical treatment since she was 3 years old, said Vergin, whose department is investigating.
The family chose to pray for the girl’s health rather than seek medical intervention, Vergin said.
Kara Neumann was 11 years old...
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