I am terrified of the idea that the common public of 70 million people that voted for Trump did not have the basic skills to determine what's true and what's not from the evidence. They've been constantly fed lies - as we speak about election fraud. They're provided with plenty of evidence, they choose to not believe.

If you think about the world where 80% of the people are religious, who throw away evidence in favor of faith; you're in for a dark future.

I am saying I don't believe in authoritative sources of truth. All the "wrong" people out there don't enter into it when I am reading news. I look for facts that can be and have been validated.

And it's important to have humility about being right about everything. You don't have to go back far to find folks on the left excited about the prospects for Venezuela. Now, it's possible to find scapegoats, but it does explain some of the right-wing perspective on fake news. If the left and the media had to see a country basically collapse to call the Venezuelan government problematic, what do you call the reporting and debate points before that? "Factual" doesn't cut it.

Pompous comments like this only drive people further away. Evidence being presented by a biased media is not evidence to be trusted. MSM “science” and “facts” are just as much a religion as Catholicism.

If I’m presented evidence from someone that has routinely lied to me, called me names, destroyed my career, and shipped my job prospects overseas, I’m not believing a single word they say.

The fact that you're getting downvoted on such a simple, objectively true statement shows the blatant bias of the HN crowd.

What’s the distinction between evidence and authority in practical sense?

Vaccine efficacy according to FDA says it’s 90%. ~~~~> Authority.

Paper published by FDA shows data ~~~~> Evidence.

Right?

Who wrote the paper and who collected the data? Some authority.