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A couple of years ago at Mythcon, @vadimnewquist tried to make the case that NO, conspiracy theories and anti-science were not just as bad on the right and left, but was shot down.
Now we have "STOP GETTING TESTED" in the news, and I find that its centrists I'm annoyed with.
Now we have "STOP GETTING TESTED" in the news, and I find that its centrists I'm annoyed with.
"BOTH SIDES" was the mantra for years, and it wasn't true. It was clearly not true, based on evidence and science. Here's an exhaustive book by Harvard Law professor Yochai Benkler on the matter from 2018. https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780190923624.001.0001/oso-9780190923624
This details in great detail what was obvious to everyone who was looking- that the Right had nurtured a twisted media landscape, openly antagonistic to science and academia, and hostile to any media outlet that wasn't their own.
And it was full of conspiracy theories, paranoia and nonsense.
And OF COURSE there was some of that on the left- but as Benkler pointed out, it tended to get corrected- because leftists look at a wider variety of media, and aren't fundamentally averse to evidence.
And OF COURSE there was some of that on the left- but as Benkler pointed out, it tended to get corrected- because leftists look at a wider variety of media, and aren't fundamentally averse to evidence.
And maybe we could have gotten through to the right's bubble with time and concerted effort, but goddamn "centrists" with their pretend skepticism of "both sides" gave them constant cover and made them feel like there wasn't a specific problem with them.
When there was.
When there was.
And now there's a pandemic and its too fucking late, we are watching the utter breakdown of people fed on lunacy and told that science and media are out to get them and take their freedoms away.
And they can't even be counted on to protect their own children anymore.
And they can't even be counted on to protect their own children anymore.
