How is society supposed to progress when so many of us seem to get offended by facts?
Saying that the endless amount of pollution we’re pumping into the atmosphere is in the long run going to wallop us in the rear end — a statement supported by overwhelming global scientific consensus — will set off a bunch of people.
Point out that abstinence-only sex education does not work — U.S. states with such programs have the country’s highest teen pregnancy rates — and that making abortion illegal only creates more health problems, again, with mountains of data to support the claims, and some people get indignantly upset.
Mention that the disgraced late-1990s study that erroneously claimed a link between the MMR vaccine and autism was completely bogus and subsequently retracted, and there are those who nevertheless remain convinced vaccinations are deadly dangerous.
Debunk with volumes of data the claim that welfare recipients are nothing but lazy freeloaders who blow their taxpayer-funded cheques on booze, cigarettes, gambling and illegal drugs, and be prepared for a self-righteous backlash.
Point out that prohibition is a monumental failure, which decades of evidence overwhelmingly supports, and some people will get offended.
Inform certain leftists that genetically modified crops are safe to eat — backed by plenty of studies — yet many will remain certain beyond the shadow of a doubt that consumption of GMOs will ultimately lead to cancer.
Remind conservatives that refugees and migrants are no more likely to commit crimes than citizens, and many will more than likely nevertheless cling to the notion that immigrants are potential terrorists come to usurp our freedoms and way of life.
Following up on the above point, cite the fact that authorities in North America are more concerned about the likes of Dylan Roofe, Alexandre Bissonette and most recently Nikolas Cruz, and others will remain convinced that Islamist extremists represent the imminent threat — despite the fact stats clearly show that we, in North America, should be far more concerned about being killed by a drunk driver or meandering moose on the highway than by being blown to smithereens by a suicide bomber.
Asserting that sensible firearm regulations work is also guaranteed to trigger — pun intended — no shortage of people. That’s despite the reality that the claim is supported by the fact the only developed nation on earth that experiences mass shootings with growing frequency largely has extremely loose gun laws. Meanwhile, such travesties are rare to nearly unheard of exceptions in countries that have stricter rules to obtain firearms.
Travelling further down the path of preposterous positions, there is even a growing movement of flat Earthers who play the victim card when publicly ostracized and ridiculed for believing a long-since discredited and frankly laughable Middle Age belief.
In other words, basically anything that does not confirm or conform to some people’s worldview to reinforce a pre-existing bias will ruffle their feathers.
Strangely, the more facts or evidence are presented, the deeper they’ll tend to dig themselves into their ideological trenches, retreating to their respective echo chambers and one-sided news bubbles such as right-wing outlets like Infowars or left-leaning sites such as Buzzfeed.
On either side of the political spectrum, some people all too often get offended when presented with information that challenges their views.
Yet we should always strive to be wary of our own confirmation bias and refrain from allowing emotions to cloud our judgment, instead carefully and calmly considering as well as scrutinizing new information without prematurely jumping to conclusions.
