On Friday, I wrote a post about people who believe whatever they want to believe, facts be damned. People doubt evolution because it makes them uncomfortable, they doubt global warming because it's either too frightening or because creationism has taught them to distrust science, and they believe that their taxes are being raised at a time they're actually being cut, because they trust talk radio liars more than reality. Personally, I don't understand any of it. Why would you want to be dumb? What purpose does it serve? I know it's not a rational thing, but what emotion drives people to be willfully and proudly ignorant?Take healthcare reform; nearly every industrialized nation has some form of universal health coverage, yet people believe it's a recipe for disaster that will literally kill people. If it's so deadly, how can so many people live so well under it? How is it that our life expectancy, under the "finest healthcare in the world," is actually 49th in the world? You'd kind of expect that "the finest" would result in number one; that is, after all, the definition of "finest." But facts are wrong, because they say so. And now we can have a debate based not on the facts, but on whether or not "death panels" will let the boogeyman gitcha.
These phony beliefs come with consequence. This idea that you can believe whatever you want to believe has an effect in the real world. People die. Real people really die, which might be part of the problem. After all, this death happens in reality, which crackpots have already decided to ignore. If you can deny the facts on paper, how difficult would it be to deny the facts right in front of you?
I thought about all this last night, as I read the story of Neil Beagley, a sixteen year-old Oregon kid killed by faith-healing. Neil died of a urinary blockage, something that's easily treated. But his parents denied the effectiveness of science and relied instead on the best medical knowledge of the 12th century. Because you get to believe what you want to believe. Given a choice between 21st century medicine and sorcery, they went with sorcery... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]
