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Comment by gibralterwassel | Hacker News Reader

With respect, I think that’s a stretch.

Scientific method is practical. Scientific fact is a belief system, not unlike religion. This doesn’t undermine science, it’s just stating what these things are. Scientific belief can be helpful.

These silly beliefs though can be harmful as is the case with Chlorine Dioxide and that horse deworming medicine they said would cure Covid.

Don’t confuse or try to link these things together. The reason that the government is now full of idiots is that people voted those idiots in. It wasn’t due to clarity that science is part belief system.

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I mean undermining of science in the sense of popular opinion. These politicians actively denigrate, de-fund, ignore science. Unfortunately, these same politicians were popular enough to gain power. They continue to attack science and treat science as if science and those who value it are their enemy.

Why do you think people voted these idiots in? In large part it's due to a distrust of science and rationality, "the system of the elites". Don't tell me that I need to vaccinate my kids! I'll cure my pancreatic cancer naturopathologically.

> Why do you think people voted these idiots in?

In my unbroken experience, they possess a demonstrated ability to believe in trivially disproven lies.

And the reason for believing these lies is because it's easier to listen to disgraced news outlets instead of reading a book or asking questions. It's a double edged sword: duped on one side and willful ignorance on the other.

Some might say, who cares about what idiots think? Well, these idiots get one vote, just like the rest of us.

> And the reason for believing these lies is because it's easier to listen to disgraced news outlets instead of reading a book or asking questions.

If it was just laziness, their belief wouldn't persist in the face of better information.

Willfully clasping onto an absurd premise this way strongly implies to me there is some sub-optimal psychology in play. There is a needful relationship inside that is being sustained (at a starvation level) by these exploitive external forces.

Your response, to me, is profound. I've lived in a deeply red voting state (OK) all my life. I never could understand how voters could vote against their best interests and to the harm of others. Perhaps your "sub-optimal psychology in play" is a reasonable answer.

I'm a recovering conservative. I've had some time to reflect.

You can certainly side with Descartes and believe in rationalism, or you can study David Hume and understand those beliefs for what they are.

You can still have and respect beliefs, but distinguishing fact from belief is purely in the realm of philosophical debate. That doesn’t mean you have to accept absence of absolute truth or facts, but there is much we don’t know and that we think we know but we don’t, and that is logical and illogical. Life is dichotomy.

There is a huge chasm between superstition and transcendence. Rationality is limited, to be sure, but I'll take it over MAHA and tariffs any day.

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