Re:America is plummeting down the global vaccination league ...
by antisthenes on Thursday August 05, 2021 @12:22PM
(#28075882)
> They are disregarding doctors and scientists all over the planet, because they think their politicians are incompetent?
It's a direct result of the toxic "every opinion counts" culture that is so pervasive in the United States (this isn't obvious to insiders, but quite clearly evident to immigrants and people who come from different cultures).
This results in people believing obviously junk sources on information - because they aren't discounting them, and treating them as equal in value to scientific articles. E.g. treating someone's personal blog that cherry picks statistics from random countries worldwide and a PubMed Meta-analysis of 10+ articles with equal weight.
Or treating the opinions of friends and family above expert recommendations.
I don't understand it and never will, so I don't know how to solve this underlying issue. My guess is by investing heavily in education and teaching kids critical thinking skills, and shaming those who disregard experts.
It's a direct result of the toxic "every opinion counts" culture that is so pervasive in the United States (this isn't obvious to insiders, but quite clearly evident to immigrants and people who come from different cultures).
This results in people believing obviously junk sources on information - because they aren't discounting them, and treating them as equal in value to scientific articles. E.g. treating someone's personal blog that cherry picks statistics from random countries worldwide and a PubMed Meta-analysis of 10+ articles with equal weight.
Or treating the opinions of friends and family above expert recommendations.
I don't understand it and never will, so I don't know how to solve this underlying issue. My guess is by investing heavily in education and teaching kids critical thinking skills, and shaming those who disregard experts.