The opinion piece by Paul Henderson, “OPINION: On the death of expertise and the decline of knowledge” (Chilliwack Progress, Sept. 10, 2021) should be required reading.
No sooner had it appeared online than one of those non-experts showed up in the comment section talking about U.S. President Joe Biden needing to be in a rest home and pushing the debunked conspiracy theory going around that the COVID vaccine is linked to an obscure condition.
There is no more of a link between the COVID vaccine and that condition than there is between another pet conspiracy theory that vaccinations caused autism. The damage caused by clinging to debunked conspiracy theories, despite all the evidence shown by actual experts in the field, is mind-boggling.
I’m one of those who put a lot of the blame for the dumbing down of society on social media platforms and their owners, who profit from those peddling wacky conspiracy theories in the first place. While we have more access to information than ever before, the same technology that gives us that access has also helped make us feel more isolated, which helps explain why people cling to what makes them feel part of something.
Conspiracy theorists deserve to be ignored but social media has given arm-chair experts in nothing a megaphone from which to shout out unintelligent opinions and drown out voices of reason from actual experts.
Like how that one commenter thinks Biden needs to be in a rest home because he has listened to scientists and experts in infectious diseases, and is pushing mass vaccinations and the wearing of masks to slow down the spread of the virus. These arm-chair experts know for sure that taking animal deworming medicines will save us all.
Why do people cling to even the most ridiculous and unproven conspiracy theories?
If you can answer that, then you will have answered why people also cling to religion when fact-based evidence shows that so much of what is in religious texts isn’t any more factual than the idea that vaccinations cause autism.
People simply want to believe what they believe and will never let facts get in the way.
Like Darwin said, ignorance is more comforting than knowledge.
It has never been more important than now to ensure that critical thinking is taught in schools to keep people from falling down these intellectual rabbit holes, no matter how comforting those rabbit holes might be.
Robert T. Rock
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READ MORE: OPINION: Have COVIDiots fallen prey to conspiracy theories or are they just selfish?