One of the more disturbing trends extant in our current public discourse is the advancement of the idea that ignorance is a valid point of view, that your lack of knowledge and information is the same as my knowledge and ability to support my argument with facts. Belief in something doesn’t mean you have a valid point of view, nor does it mean that said belief should be taken seriously. I may believe the Green Bay Packers to be the very embodiment of evil, but that doesn’t make it true. Most of my family, who happen to be (misguided) Packers fans, will vouch for that.
I try to be open-minded and accepting of different views of the world. I don’t have to agree with those views, but I can accept that someone may have sound, supportable reasons for feeling as they do. That open-mindedness doesn’t extend to accepting those who assume something to be true because it meshes with their prejudices and preconcieved notions…even though they can conjure nothing to support their belief. You’re free to disagree with me, but I ask of you only what I expect of myself: that you can back up your arguments with actual, honest-to-God facts. Absent facts, all you have is a delusion…Lord knows there’s already far too much of that poisoning our public discourse these days.
The idea that merely believing in something makes it equivalent to empirical, supportable, demonstrable concepts is prima facie absurd. The belief that science is but one point of view is an anti-intellectual as it is immoral. You’re free to believe as you see fit, but science doesn’t give a damn what you believe. Science cares only about what’s known and what can be proven.
The faux controversy over vaccines is a perfect example of what can happen when common sense goes on hiatus and people believe something because it supports their prejudice and preconceived notions. Despite more than a century of data proving that vaccines work, a significant number of otherwise intelligent people are willing to believe one fabricated, long-since discredited study because it supports what the WANT to believe. I saw an interview on “The Daily Show” in which a woman with a Ph.D. stated, with no accompanying sense of irony, that she didn’t believe the science proving the efficacy of vaccines. There are people in my own family willing to dismiss mountains of scientific data because “we can’t be certain vaccines are completely safe.” As if measles and chicken pox are? WTF?? When did ignorance become accepted as a valid point of view?
Dismissing the “intellectual elite” is a time-honored American tradition, of course. There’s nothing new or particularly original about ignoring science. What is new and original is the false equivalence that belief in something is as valid as scientific reality. I’ve long since tired of those who demand their demonstrably false views be given the same weight and afforded the same respect as something proven to be true. It’s dangerous, dishonest, and just plain wrong.
Ignorance isn’t the same as truth, and it should be opposed by every thinking person who values the empirical and provable. Nor should anyone expect or demand their intolerance be tolerated. There comes a time when good people who honor and respect truth and who believe in tolerance and acceptance need to stand up for what’s right. If we can’t see our way clear to standing against the forces of ignorance and intolerance, we run the risk of waking up in an idiocracy.
We deserve better.
