The biggest problem with my amazing number theory is this: it’s all made up. Fake news, if you like, though it’s hardly news.Yes, I just invented the whole lot.
The figures are wrong. Admittedly they are believable, and not terribly far from the truth.
There’s a whole load of pseudoscience that just makes things up, or is selective in the data used. Vast claims are based on thin evidence, or none.
I remember being intrigued when I was young with books about the Bermuda triangle, or was God and astronaut? The fact they are nonsense and have been thoroughly debunked does not stop people still believing in these things. Or that the Earth is flat and space does not exist.
James Randi did a good job debunking faith healers, but people still go and give their hard earned money away. And people seriously follow horoscopes too.
A group called Extinction Rebellion has been saying that, because of climate change, billions of children will die very soon. Ask for some evidence and you get bluster: https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1188717/extinction-rebellion-andrew-neil-climate-change-protest-london-emergency-bbc
This is a great clip from Professor Brian Cox, science tv guy. He is challenged for evidence of climate change. His answer: lots of people believe it so it must be true: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG8gLt4GChg
Misinformation, or lying if you like, is everywhere and is rarely challenged. Politicians do it all the time. Someone told me that President Trump had told 10,000 lies in public since he came to office. People in the media who challenge people like Trump are denounced by the people who simply give random opinion. Take Shep Smith from Fox News, an upholder of factual content who finally reached the end of his tether.
Surely, surely there is a place for truth. There are no ‘alternative facts’, they are just lies. If a politician tells you that the economy has never ever been better than under him, or her, don’t just accept it.
If you hear that 97% of scientists believe in climate change, ask yourself, why do they have to believe, if it is supported by facts there is surely no argument? If you find out that it’s 97% of researchers who have written papers on climate change, why don’t the other 3%? Isn’t that like saying 97% of vicars believe in God? Why is it so low?
And so on. We are so surrounded by gossip and opinion and so starved of facts supported by evidence that it makes me mad.