A comforting belief, the reality is that the scientific and rational literacy of vast numbers of people are basically non-existent. People can be convinced to believe anything, regardless of the evidence.

The corollary to this is that much of the current paradigm of anything even of all of society may be considered completely insane in a short period of time, say 100 or more years. There is no way for humans to know any truth, they simply have appealing rhetoric which according to current norms or methods of inquiry seems reasonable and believable. Many of them don't even currently stand up to scrutiny but that doesn't stop anyone from accepting them at face value.

this is sadly not the case. maybe 10 years ago it would have been, but plenty of people are now sincere flat earthers.

i suppose there are different degrees of belief and maybe on some deep level they realize it’s nonsense but they aren’t consciously trolling anyone.

sadly in my experience I've met a few true believers and youtube being the source doesn't surprise me as "look it up yourself on youtube" seems to be the go-to response to my questions about things like iridium satellites or how GPS works.