“Many of the most
corrosive lies currently circulating have taken hold not because the conspiracy
believers will believe anything, but because they start by trusting nothing. In
order to believe that Covid-19 was a con or that the 2020 election was stolen, one
must first disbelieve traditional media outlets, scientific journals and
institutions of longstanding. All three, alas, sometimes give us reasons to
doubt them, but those reasons shouldn’t lead people into a dogmatic rejection
of anything the ‘mainstream’ says. That defensive doubt might feel smart, but
it’s really a cognitive surrender born out of a sense of helplessness and
despair.” — “Underground Economist” columnist Tim Harford, “How to Turn Our
Children Into Truth Sleuths,”
The Financial Times, Mar. 18-19, 2023
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